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It helps to have hosted a college championship for the past 60+ years though.
Omaha's college hockey team also is in the top 5 in average attendance. The college basketball team averages about 15,000 a game, a university with only about 8,000 students mind you.
There are obviously a ton of Husker fans here as well. On Saturdays when the Huskers have a home game I-80 is gridlocked, the worst traffic this area ever sees.
Omaha also is where the 4 largest crowds to ever watch a college volleyball match in the country's history happened.
That makes sense, as there are no professional sport teams in Nebraska. They're very loyal to their college teams.
Definitely pro sports at least now in LA. Lakers used to hold the top spot here, but I think the Ram and Dodgers are up there too now that they are great teams!
In Charlotte, there's big support for both pro and college. You see lots of Panthers and Hornets stuff and North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Duke stuff as well. A college can be very popular across a whole state and not just in the area in which they're located.
I live in Ft. Worth, but even though TCU athletics is our only real sports (we don't even have our 100+ year old minor league team at the moment) the city has, we're still more pro sports than college.
In Boston, and much of New England, the emphasis is on pro sports. Boston has more colleges than any other city in the US, but it's emphatically not a college sports town.
In Boston, and much of New England, the emphasis is on pro sports. Boston has more colleges than any other city in the US, but it's emphatically not a college sports town.
I bet there would be alot more interest in the college sports in Boston/New England if the college sports teams were competetive every year on a national level. I rarely hear any of the teams up there going to a major bowl game or a serious contender in the NCAA basketball tourney or qualifying for the college baseball world series.
I bet there would be alot more interest in the college sports in Boston/New England if the college sports teams were competetive every year on a national level. I rarely hear any of the teams up there going to a major bowl game or a serious contender in the NCAA basketball tourney or qualifying for the college baseball world series.
I don't know about that. New England universities do complete at high levels in college sports. UConn has had a long history of basketball success including winning the NCAA tournament 4 years ago (2014, 2011, 2004, 1999), UMass had a lot of success in Basketball in the 90s. Boston College has had success in both Basketball and Football throughout its history. That generated interest, but even with sustained success, it's not a college sports region. This is arguably the biggest region for college hockey in the country (UMaine, BC, BU, UVM, UNH, Providence, and others all compete for the national championship each year), and it's a big deal. But it's still not close to the level of college basketball/football elsewhere.
The problem up here is twofold. The obvious first issue is that professional sports will always overshadow college sports due to the longevity and history of success of the teams. There are plenty of towns across the country where both college and professional sports are popular, but few of them have professional franchises with the history of success that Boston's pro teams do. Even when Boston wasn't racking up championships like it is now, the pro teams have been generally competitive.
The second problem is that the culture up here would make it extremely difficult for any schools to invest the type of money into their athletic programs to make them competitive with the biggest/best nationwide on a consistent basis. Taxpayers would never endorse the amount of money that goes into athletic programs like Penn State, University of Texas, Florida State, etc. where coaches are among the highest paid public employees (by far), and the facilities are top notch. Private schools don't have to worry about using taxpayer dollars, but they would have to deal with alumni networks and endowments which are highly unlikely to endorse a shift in spending to focus on athletics. It's just not going to happen.
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