Was in Detroit for the 2004 motor city bowl. there is literally nothing but abandoned buildings outside the sports facilities, did get to see the old tiger stadium that was cool.
What city is the best sports city? (City. Not state. U.S.only)
- Thread starter Jaydumo20
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I've lived in the NYC area my whole life, so it's hard for me to pick another city since the combination of volume, passion, knowledge is just so rich.
Within the city limits, there are unique epicenters of fandom -- imagine the fandom palette of someone from the Bronx vs. Queens. There's the four key pro sports, college fandom, even flavors from across the world.
Of course, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago have to be up there too. If I had to rank those cities, I'd go Chicago, Philadelphia then Boston. Out of all of those cities, Boston feels the most "bandwagon-y" to me. Maybe because it's the smallest city out of the four mentioned above, but the proportion of true fanatics, to me, feels less proportional than the other three. More objectively speaking, college sports is less impactful in Boston than the other cities. Elite hockey, but basketball and football in Boston is a dud.
More importantly, if you think your city is the best, then roll with that. Plenty of smaller cities with insanely passionate fanbases (I'm looking at you Fargo, ND and Cow Dick, TX).
Within the city limits, there are unique epicenters of fandom -- imagine the fandom palette of someone from the Bronx vs. Queens. There's the four key pro sports, college fandom, even flavors from across the world.
Of course, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago have to be up there too. If I had to rank those cities, I'd go Chicago, Philadelphia then Boston. Out of all of those cities, Boston feels the most "bandwagon-y" to me. Maybe because it's the smallest city out of the four mentioned above, but the proportion of true fanatics, to me, feels less proportional than the other three. More objectively speaking, college sports is less impactful in Boston than the other cities. Elite hockey, but basketball and football in Boston is a dud.
More importantly, if you think your city is the best, then roll with that. Plenty of smaller cities with insanely passionate fanbases (I'm looking at you Fargo, ND and Cow Dick, TX).
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I think that’s more because Red Sox and Yankees caps are more about the city than the team at this point. Everyone wears them, baseball fan or not.
willie99
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We lost, it happens, on to next year. Hopefully sans Joe Mazzulla
Winning it all is hard. If Denver loses as expected, there are zero titles in nearly 50 years for the remaining franchises. Over 50 years for the remaining cities. Four finals appearances in that time frame
Enjoy the moment, don't act punch drunk
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I don't love it a lot of Knicks fans who experienced the Ewing don't love it, but it's mostly kids who never experienced the Knicks getting to the ECF and they wanna party and get drunk on a Friday night. 7th avenue is always nuts whether the Knicks win or lose.
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willie99
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Mike Honcho
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My friend in LA just named his new kitten Dodger.
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This is not even remotely an accurate characterization of Dodger fans.
Mike Honcho
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Lol, no. 13 year resident here. They care about the Niners, Dubs, and Giants. Token fanship for Cal and Stanford. People struggle to understand my UConn addiction.
I fall in between @Matrim55 and @HuskyHawk/@Scottobot's perspective.
Monta Ellis recently shared that the Warriors fans were the best in the NBA, and that was during the pre-Steph years when the Dubs sucked:
"Oracle, man… them people used to — like, we was terrible. Them folks was selling out every night. Like, it was crazy. They sold out every night, man. And that's why like — we was really trying to win for them. Like, we was really trying to win for them," he remarked. "They some loyal fans. I'm talking about loyal fans. Like, I don't even think I can see one time when we was playing bad, and they booed us. Loyal."
That said, I wouldn't put the bay in the same league as Boston or NY.
HuskyHawk
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I used to go to Giants games at candlestick and they’d draw under 20,000 when not playing LA and sell it out for LA. Weird experience because capacity was so high. But your 13 years started long after my 3 years ended in late 1999. The Warriors were 19-63 in 1997-98 and averaged 12,000 a game. Nobody cared. Glad to hear times have changed.
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Add me to the list of people who have Boston #1. I’m thinking about the question being: what city would be best overall for a sports fan with no real loyalties (not dissimilar to me when I first moved here) to see high level sports and enjoy a city that has good sports presence in bars
Chicago
NY
Denver is underrated
Pittsburgh is cool
Their teams aren’t good yet but you have to love Vegas lol
Chicago
NY
Denver is underrated
Pittsburgh is cool
Their teams aren’t good yet but you have to love Vegas lol
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I remember a quote from Jason Giambi when he was with the Yanks explaining the experience playing in NY versus some amazing Oakland teams. It will never be the same out West. They just don’t have the same level of intensity, culture or generational history. I feel like the Dodgers are the closest thing.
With that said, it’s really hard to beat Philly or Boston. NY is diluted across multiple teams per sport and have all the other sources of entrainment. They do it bigger when they win, but not the same sustained fanaticism for losers.
Baltimore is an underrated city.
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Baltimore might be becoming slightly underrated as a city but nooooobody is thinking about moving there for anything related to sports. You move there for proximity to DC, to attend or work at UMD, or to work at John’s Hopkins. Camden Yards and Lamar Jackson (for now) on Sundays is a nice bonus.
Completely agree on NY. I feel like the Bay is like Boston in that it’s a smaller large city with locals who are die hard for their teams, a fair amount going on outside of sports (unlike the Green Bays and Buffalos of the world) but they aren’t sprawling metropolises with almost too much going on like LA/NY
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Wow, didn’t appreciate there were so many of us here in the Bay.
I land where you do, much stronger fan bases than people give them credit for, but below NY. One thing people don’t realize is the amount of options out here. This area is a literal bucket list vacation area. The teams aren’t competing just with create civic amenities like most, they are competing with world class destinations that are available to us all every weekend: beaches, mountains, wine country, even central coast are all at arms reach.
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From near death, but a pulse has recently been detected. Obviously far from thriving, but a wee bit of economic activity in the last decade, neighborhood renovations/restorations, a new Detroit-Windsor Ontario bridge, etc versus total absolute blight, ripping down unused buildings and homes, etc. Massively long way to go, but some positive activity surprising to some who may recall Detroit circa Motor City Bowl 2005.
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It's improved tremendously. My buddy lived there when they didn't even have the lights on. He worked at the auto plant building cars and then would drive home in the dark because there were no city lights and no stop lights in the city. After working in St. Louis he's happy to be returning home to Detroit, something he never thought would happen.
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Point is, the sports are one of the very very few things they have to collectively cheer for and feel good about. I know lots of people who work to pay the bills and use what’s leftover for lions season tickets. That’s it.
storrsroars
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I would imagine there are much higher percentages of non-sports fans in NY & LA than Chicago or most smaller cities.
In NY or LA, if you don't follow sports, you're considered an erudite sophisticate. In Pittsburgh, you're just a weirdo.
Do they even have Friday night HS football in NY and LA?
In NY or LA, if you don't follow sports, you're considered an erudite sophisticate. In Pittsburgh, you're just a weirdo.
Do they even have Friday night HS football in NY and LA?
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I get that you're making a point here but yes they do. There are a handful of high school football teams in LA that would beat the best team in PA by 90.
Waquoit
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It's interesting the title is "Best sports city" does that mean the city with the most teams or the city with the best fans?
Cause if you have never been to Green Bay you don't know what game day means. The entire town celebrates the game.
Lambeau Field has been enlarged 10 times, it started with 32000 seats and now has 81000 seats.
Cause if you have never been to Green Bay you don't know what game day means. The entire town celebrates the game.
Lambeau Field has been enlarged 10 times, it started with 32000 seats and now has 81000 seats.
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storrsroars
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I don't follow HS football here, and you're probably right that LA's best teams would probably beat the best teams from Western PA, but where do you think Aaron Donald came from?
I have no idea who's good right now, but it would be a fun exercise to put together an all-time all-star HS team from the LA Metro vs one from Western PA. I think we beat you in QBs and DBs at least.
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I don't know about historical all-time teams but I know that right now the best teams in Southern California are absolutely loaded. Mater Dei goes 2 deep with P5 guys. A couple years ago they went out to Texas and opened their season against the defending Texas big school champ and won by 6 touchdowns. I watched them play St. John Bosco this season and if you were standing on the field you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a D1 college game. It's insane and does not in any way resemble the high school football of my youth in upstate NY.
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NYC #1 but if I put away my fan goggles I'll go with Dallas. The fans there show up and show out for the Mavs, Stars, Rangers and Cowboys plus they will travel to away SEC games in numbers and SMU is becoming a regional power, like Back In The Day.
Plus-and a lot of people don't agree with me-I have found fans and people in general down there to be exceedingly courteous even when I showed up with Giants and Knicks gear. Can get rude, but nothing like NYC.
Plus-and a lot of people don't agree with me-I have found fans and people in general down there to be exceedingly courteous even when I showed up with Giants and Knicks gear. Can get rude, but nothing like NYC.
Historically speaking I’d say New York, Philadelphia, or St Louis. With Washington and Chicago not too fat behind.
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Ok, there's been a lot of talk about mainstream (mostly pro sports) and it seems like Boston, NY, Philly, Chicago, and LA come up most often to no surprise. How about adding to the discussion annual sporting events/non-mainstream events? I think Boston might be tough to beat on this aspect with the Beanpot, the Marathon, and the Head of the Charles. Any other cities with similarities?
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