Best Sports City/Area/Region (recruit, champions, fan, tackle)

[Ohiogirl81]

Cleveland rocks, baby!

[Blue Grass Fever]

I'd have to say a toss-up between Detroit and Chicago as best sports towns!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by JJG

Something I should have mentioned before... this poll depends on:

-Number of Major sports teams (including NASCAR tracks)
-Number of major sporting events the city/area held (including the Olympics)
-Fan Support
-College sports atmosphere
-Championship teams in the area

If your city doesn't have at least one of those, don't even think of voting for it. Oh wait, that's right....I can't tell you how to vote .

Hard to beat the New York metro area for sheer number of major pro teams: Two football teams (Jets and Giants); two baseball teams (Yankees and Mets); Two basketball teams (Nicks and Nets); three hockey teams (Rangers, Islanders and Devils). Many of those teams have nutso-devoted fans, and between them they have dozens of championships, though the Yanks are responsible for most of them.

[tkx7]

Best Fans = Wisonsin sports (Greenbay and Milwaukee)

[X-Greensboro Resident]

Originally Posted by CHICAGOLAND92

Indianapolis!
Amaeteur (spell check) capital of the world!

I agree! Definitely Indianapolis. You don't just see the "Major" league sports, you see all kinds of different sports from wrestling to swimming to whatever, there is something for everybody. You don't run out of sporting events to go to.

[elfyum]

MOTOR CITY BABY!!!!!!!!
GO PISTONS!!!!!!

[Frank the Tank]

People can argue that St. Louis has better baseball fans or that Green Bay has the most passionate football fans, but Chicago wins for the best support across the board. The Bears are the heart-and-soul of the city, the Cubs and White Sox have the best intra-city pro rivalry in sports (anyone who thinks that the Yankees-Mets has anywhere near the divide or passion doesn't know what they're talking about), the Bulls are back on the rise, have the Michael Jordan legacy and still were either first or second in NBA attendance even in those abysmal post-MJ years, and the Blackhawks... well, they're awful and fans are dropping like flies, but that's due to the presence of the worst owner in all of sports. Also, even though the city proper isn't a college sports town per se, there's a large college sports presence with Illinois, Notre Dame, Northwestern, and DePaul either in the city or close by along with all of the Big Ten schools having huge fan contingents.

I can't stand the Detroit teams (and especially those Michigan Wolverines), but I'd put them right behind Chicago for across the board support. New York and Boston also are great for pro sports, but they don't have a college presence similar to the Big Ten/Notre Dame (the smaller Big East schools have nowhere near the broad impact). The Southern and Southwestern cities are the opposite with the passion lying more with college sports as opposed to the pros (with the exception of the Dallas Cowboys). As for the West Coast, there might be pockets of passion (i.e. USC football fans), but they don't have the rabid fan bases that you see in other parts of the country. Even the Oakland Raiders, who have a reputation of having crazy fans, rarely are able to sell out their games.

[unknown stuntman]

Tough to say as much as I've experienced alot of different places. There are two factors one should really ignore in debating the merits of places. First off, number of professional teams, or even solely focusing on pro sports leagues. There is a much bigger picture. You have a huge metropolitan, huge regional population, your going to have pro teams. New York doesn't have more pro teams because it is is any more ardent in its support of those teams/sport than perhaps even a smaller city that has no professional teams, perhaps not even good college programs in the vicinity. Atlanta has an NHL team while Bismark does not. Let's not kid ourselves here as to which is truly the bigger hockey hotbed. Secondly, the championships element. If you want to talk most successful team sports region, then fine, but be reminded that there are alot of ways to interpret the question that was posed. Also just in regards to pro sports, let's face it: your team wins a title because either you have the payroll, you have a brilliant gm, or you had alot of fortune. It seems to be a great sports city just in the context of spectator sports, you ought to have knowledgable fans who show up even when the team stinks.
Who is it? Well, I think Indianapolis is a heck of a good choice from the amateur sports aspect and going well and beyond just the major team sport aspect. I lived there for a time and there was an excellent case made earlier for that city. If we want to dwell on participation and/or knowledge of the game, I wouldn't have the foggiest notion. It could be some place in the midst of the Navajo Indian reservation for all I know.
So since most here are going to relate to this thread from the realm of the four major pro team sports and two big time college sports, I'll lend my opinion from this angle also. Without much first hand experience and little time spent there, I still sway towards St. Louis. They seem to have pretty good support for some average/poor teams, pro and college. The Univ of St Louis Billiken basketball program at one time anyhow, I believe had good attendance figures. This isn't Kentucky or Duke, nor even a program located some where say, like Evansville or Wichita where there aren't many options. They also host events like the Final Four and regionals, as well as the Frozen Four this year.
Much first hand experience, I'll make a strong case for and against Boston. The good: again, you want to take it from the aspect of participatory and big-time local recreational events, you can make a strong case. If we are going from the aspect of team sports, WAY overrated. I thought New York was low on the totem pole for college sports support, but Boston is the worst major city in the country I believe. The media coverage is an embarrassment.
In New York also, there is a segment of the print and broadcast media that at least does an excellent job of coverage of college sports, as well as major golfing, tennis, horse racing events. Boston, not so much so and there are long time media people there who will tell you that there is an actual elitist mentality in some corners that purposely tries to diminish college sports and ignore it.
The variety as it pertains to sports talk radio in Boston is atrocious. Nothing but Red Sox and Patriots talk. Do the Bruins and Celtics even still play? Yes, remember that mythical Celtic franchise? Also I learned in NY atleast there seems to be a little better knowledge by the locals and media of the entire landscape of any given team sport beyond his/her own team. I've noticed anything but with the Red Sox and Patriots and in fact Nielsen ratings substantiate that, as the ratings drop sharper in this town when the locals aren't playing. It begs the question, do you really like a sport? Or do you like a sport because it produces a winning local pro product? Again, I personally like to see some concerted effort by area residents that make a city or region stand out as a terrific sports town beyond being home to an apt organization run by a few millionaires who often are outside investors who reside else where. Or even that succesful college athletics program that has a large and affluent alumni base when you have to remember, a good proportion of the area residents aren't alumni to begin with.
Food for thought.

[OREGONRAIN]

Being from Massachusetts, I have never been anywhere that I saw the interest in sports as much as there, but Chicago, New York, Dallas, Denver are also way up in that level also. The worst area I have ever seen is where I now live, Portland Oregon

[Futcha]

Go Yankees, NY Rangers, Jets, and Knicks!