What city does Chicago consider its biggest sports rival? (Springfield: how much, layoffs)

[Freefall18]

No St. Louis option?

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

Don't know if the Sox have a rival.

Minnesota is the usual one, but there's also a rivalry with Detroit. There's always some animosity towards any other team that is winning the Central.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by Drover

That's because every one of your major sports teams is in the same division with at least one, sometimes two New York teams. And mix in some of Philly's desire to reinforce that they're not in NYC's shadow. A lot of downstate Illinoisians are St. Louis Cardinals fans for the same reason, as a "FU" to Chicago.

There's some lingering Cubs/Mets rivalry among old-timers here left over from the days when they were in the same division. I don't think anyone under40 cares about the Mets though.

Most of those people who are Cardinal fans are so because StL is the largest and closest metro to their community and they are closest physically and culturally. It has nothing to do with an FU to Chicago.

Anyway, the biggest rivals as far as I can tell are Green Bay, StL, and Detroit. It all depends of which sport.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

Most of those people who are Cardinal fans are so because StL is the largest and closest metro to their community and they are closest physically and culturally. It has nothing to do with an FU to Chicago.

I've lived in Cardinal territory. Have extended family in Cardinal territory (who live substantially closer to Chicago than STL I might add). Believe me, a "FU" to Chicago is no small part of why Cardinal territory extends as far north as it does. And it's interesting how many of those folks trade their Cardinals jerseys for Bears jerseys come fall; there's just no rubbing it in as a Rams fan because there's no built-in division rivalry. Cub fandom stops dead at I-74, and C/U & B/N would be even heavier Cardinal territory than they already are were it not for the student populations. Meanwhile, Bears territory reaches darn near to Effingham and even beyond in the eastern half of the state.

[BleedCubbieBlue]

St Louis ( F St Louis) and Green Bay ( F Green Bay).

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

I've lived in Cardinal territory. Have extended family in Cardinal territory (who live substantially closer to Chicago than STL I might add). Believe me, a "FU" to Chicago is no small part of why Cardinal territory extends as far north as it does. And it's interesting how many of those folks trade their Cardinals jerseys for Bears jerseys come fall; there's just no rubbing it in as a Rams fan because there's no built-in division rivalry. Cub fandom stops dead at I-74, and C/U & B/N would be even heavier Cardinal territory than they already are were it not for the student populations. Meanwhile, Bears territory reaches darn near to Effingham and even beyond in the eastern half of the state.

I always wondered why they didnt support the Rams instead of the Bears. I assume they side with the Blues, too?

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by Drover

I've lived in Cardinal territory. Have extended family in Cardinal territory (who live substantially closer to Chicago than STL I might add). Believe me, a "FU" to Chicago is no small part of why Cardinal territory extends as far north as it does. And it's interesting how many of those folks trade their Cardinals jerseys for Bears jerseys come fall; there's just no rubbing it in as a Rams fan because there's no built-in division rivalry. Cub fandom stops dead at I-74, and C/U & B/N would be even heavier Cardinal territory than they already are were it not for the student populations. Meanwhile, Bears territory reaches darn near to Effingham and even beyond in the eastern half of the state.

I don't think it's nearly as cut-and-dry as you make it seem. I lived in Cardinal/Cubs territory for 18 years and also have extended family right in Cardinal territory (Chester, Redbud, Pickneyville). None of my family that are Cards fans are so because they want it to be an FU to Chicago; they are Cards fans because they live within the sphere of influence StL and are much more aligned with StL than Chicago, as StL is their "go-to" city. All of my family in Springfield (well below the 74 cutoff), however, are die-hard Cubs fans. I grew up in Springfield as a Cubs fan. I think there are a lot of them in Springfield, frankly. There are groups that regularly organize bus trips up to Wrigley throughout the spring and summer.

As for the Rams fan, the Rams are such a relatively new franchise to the StL area that there would be no logical reason for people who might have grown up as Bears (or even Chi Cardinals) fans to switch for the sake of switching.

Edit: actually there's a really cool map showing the percentages of each team's fans. 74 does seem like a pretty useful divider for the transition zone.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...40.418,-88.977

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

I always wondered why they didnt support the Rams instead of the Bears. I assume they side with the Blues, too?

People in the hinterlands of Illinois seem thoroughly disinterested in hockey.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by Freefall18

No St. Louis option?

That's why I created the "other" option for cities that I happen to miss.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Depends on the sport, but if I had to pick one city that comes closest, I would go with Detroit.

Definitely huge hockey rivals, pretty big football, basketball and baseball rivals (though other cities are bigger rivals in one sport each).

If you go across the board across all sports (not just Bears-Packers or Cubs-Cardinals, which are larger individual rivalries), then I'd definitely agree with Detroit. I wrote about this back in 2006:

Chi-Town vs. Motown: Rivalries Across the Board | FRANK THE TANK'S SLANT

Granted, there are some dated references there - the Blackhawks were in a decade-long funk right in the middle of a period of dominance for the Red Wings, so it had receded in prominence at the time (whereas the Bulls-Pistons rivalry was actually going through a resurgence back then). Still, Detroit seems to be the one city where there is a legit reciprocal rivalry at some level for each of the major sports (even going down to college sports - see Notre Dame vs. Michigan). It's the closest corollary that we have to NYC/Boston or LA/SF where none of the teams like each other even though they all aren't necessarily each others' #1 rivals in every sport. Speaking of which, Chicago fans generally also don't like the New York teams across the board, but it's not reciprocated at all (so you can't really call that a rivalry).