Best Sports City (fan, Jackets, teams, pro)

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Northman

The "best sports city" title always gets handed to the town that has a couple of defending champs in it.......in this case, Pittsburgh. If it had been the Dolphins and the Panthers winning titles it would have gone to Miami, as ridiculous as that would be.

First tier of best sports towns - Detroit, Chicago, New York, Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh. Second tier - Washington, Buffalo, St. Louis, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco,. Third tier - Twin Cities, Kansas City, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincy. All other towns cannot be labeled true "sports towns" at all, IMO.

I'm sure I left someone out....flame away!

I think that your first tier is right on target - I wouldn't add or remove any of them. I'd probably swap Cleveland with San Francisco, though. Cleveland is a pretty solid sports town for all of its pro teams plus strong ties to Ohio State when it comes to college sports. The West Coast simply can't compete in that respect.

Further to your other posts, I think St. Louis is iffy as a first tier sports town. It's certainly might very well be the best baseball town, but it doesn't have the top-to-bottom love for all of its teams in the same manner of Chicago, Boston or Detroit. So, the second tier for St. Louis seems about right to me.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by skipcromer

No, its not great because of Atlanta, but atlanta is still the center of it all. I was never really bit into college football until I moved there.

Atlanta's a great college football town, but it's horrible when it comes to pro sports.

Here's a good challenge: what's the best sports town when you take into account BOTH pro sports and college sports?

As much as it pains me as a Chicagoan, I'd put Detroit at the top here. It loves all of its pro teams (even the lowly Lions) plus having rabid Michigan and Michigan State fan bases. Chicago is an underrated college sports town, IMHO - while it's certainly a pro sports town first and foremost, it's also the epicenter for Big Ten alums as well as having the largest fan base for Notre Dame. This is where Boston, NYC and Philly fall short - despite all having lots of colleges, none of them really care about college sports other than the occasional bandwagon team.

[Libohove90]

Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

Atlanta's a great college football town, but it's horrible when it comes to pro sports.

Here's a good challenge: what's the best sports town when you take into account BOTH pro sports and college sports?

As much as it pains me as a Chicagoan, I'd put Detroit at the top here. It loves all of its pro teams (even the lowly Lions) plus having rabid Michigan and Michigan State fan bases. Chicago is an underrated college sports town, IMHO - while it's certainly a pro sports town first and foremost, it's also the epicenter for Big Ten alums as well as having the largest fan base for Notre Dame. This is where Boston, NYC and Philly fall short - despite all having lots of colleges, none of them really care about college sports other than the occasional bandwagon team.

Penn State football team is well rooted in Philly and don't forget Villanova Wildcats' NCAA bball team too...

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by skipcromer

You should check out College Football Saturday in Atlanta.

I'll give a hand to the college football fans but the pro teams not so much.

[sleepy eyes 1979]

When the dysfunctional Browns left the city of Cleveland you would have thought the city was under attack with the way everyone was reacting. We love our teams when they're winning and we love to hate them even worse when they are losing. We love to tail gate as well. Go Bengals!

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by Northman

Yeah, but that's because of all the schools that surround the Atlanta region (SEC, ACC), not Atlanta itself. Georgia Tech is the only one actually IN Atlanta, and despite always being competitive, the only game they ever sell out is against Georgia, despite playing in a stadium that only seats a little over 50,000 (small by major college football standards). There were even empty seats at Bobby Dodd Stadium for that huge game against Virginia Tech a few weeks back.

I lived in metro Atlanta for 20 years, and I never understood the lack of interest for the Ga. Tech football program, which has a long and storied history...... especially since it's located in the biggest city within the supposed "football crazy" south. The inevitable conclusion, as with so many other aspects of Atlanta, is that the area is comprised largely of transplants that still support other teams, wether college or pro. Personally, I believe that no matter where one is coming from, the first allegiance should always be toward your current hometown team, but apparently I am in the small majority with this opinion. This is THE major reason I never considered Atlanta a serious sports town, though.

I'm not sure where you're getting the information on Georgia Tech, but their home games are very often sold out. I've tried to get tickets to games in previous years and several times couldn't get them. Every game I have watched on TV this year at Tech was packed. There is a lot of support for athletics at Tech, so I just can't figure out where you're coming from...

The Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech game was sold out...there were under 1,000 tickets left two days before the game (as reported in the AJC) but they were all sold by game time. Just seeing empty seats in the stands doesn't mean the seats aren't sold, as I'm sure you realize. People don't stay in their seats for the entire game.

Bobby Dodd Stadium holds 55,000...not just over 50,000 as you stated.

Atlanta is very torn between allegiances to Tech and UGA, which is located less than 30 minutes from Metro Atlanta. There are tons of UGA fans here. And not that this really matters because Tech does sell out it's football games, but it is a smaller school (19,000) than most big football schools. A school like UGA (30,000+) can easily support an 88,000 seat stadium.

[wGoshen]

I'd put Cleveland far ahead of Pittsburgh, not due the the teams performances, but to fan loyalty, which is what really makes up a truly great sport town. Pittsburgh fans may celebrate when they win, but when they lose, they are nowhere to be seen.We have the Indians, the Cavs, and the lowly Browns, and they are all supported by not only Cleveland, but the entire state of Ohio. You know you are a major sports town when you still see so many Browns fans turn out only to see them get slaughtered every week.

[dacx]

I think the best sports city should be decided by which cities have the most loyal fans even when they are not winning. That would keep the band-waggoners out.

With that being said I feel Detroit should be up there as well as St. Louis, Chicago and Dallas.

Seattle's starting to become more of a sports town too even though we did lose the sonics

[Mylläri]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

Any city with the Pittsburgh Pirates can not possibly win a legitimate best sports city award.

Pittsburgh is known as the "City of Champions (and the Pirates)"

[Speedaddicted]

Originally Posted by Mylläri

Pittsburgh is known as the "City of Champions (and the Pirates)"

New Yorks baseball team has more "championships" on its own than all of Pittsburgh sports combined. Hell so does Boston's and LA's basketball teams. This is a sham.