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NFL is the gold standard for sports viewership. Nothing else touches it. Then college football. Then NBA, MLB. College basketball is probably 5th. NASCAR, golf, and NHL probably have arguments for 6th.
In terms of national recognition and importance, which of these southern metros takes the cake? In terms of history, popularity, growth, pop culture, sports, etc.
For example, if you talk to someone anywhere in the United States, which metro out of these options would that person most-likely recognize and know about? (I'm excluding larger cities such as Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, etc.)
History: Charleston
Popularity: Charleston/Raleigh
Growth: Charleston/Raleigh
Pop culture: Memphis
Sports: Louisville for the Derby/Raleigh for college basketball
In terms of national recognition, these cities are all different. Charleston is known nationwide (and across the pond to an extent as its seasonal flight to London would attest to) as a popular tourist destination based on its history/historic preservation, culture, and geography and although it's not the most important overall of this bunch, Boeing's continuing investments in the area is giving it some cachet in the aerospace sector. Its seaport, somewhere around the fourth-busiest on the East Coast as well as the fastest-growing for a number of years recently, handles a good bit of exports/imports for SC as well parts of NC, including Charlotte which principally relies on the port of Charleston. That's an asset which gives it greater importance that its metropolitan GDP would suggest.
Raleigh's national recognition and importance are the most intertwined of all these cities with both being rooted in its status as the largest anchor city of the NC Triangle whose regional economy revolves around its highly-respected research universities, the large STEM-related sector they support especially life sciences/biopharma, the medical research/healthcare sector, and state government. RTP is the world's largest research park and arguably plays the most critical role in the level of importance of Raleigh and the larger region.
As far as importance goes, the remaining cities were arguably more important historically than currently with the possible exception of Memphis with its significant logistics economy today. Richmond's historical importance was more national in scope though, and at some crucial junctures in the early American narrative which is worth mentioning. I'd probably also say all of these cities had more national recognition in bygone eras with Memphis having more carryover to the present day largely due the cultural role it played in the 20th century.
To echo most others here, Memphis is the correct answer as it has too much spotlight in too many areas compared to the other cities here...
After Memphis, its a pick'em as far as I'm concerned...
Charleston has large branding and notoriety over here on the East Coast (be it Northeast or Southeast), but isn't really a place you hear about much at all once you cross maybe Middle Tennessee. Spent plenty of time in both Memphis and Little Rock as well as points westward, Charleston is not a topic of conversation once you leave the Eastern seaboard...
Now, one could make the argument that, since the East Coast is the most populous strip in the nation, that Charleston carrying acclaim over here is enough to rank it ahead of the rest of the cities in the OP, and I could buy that argument to a degree. But there's a whole lot of country left once you leave the eastern time zone, and the thread asked which city is most nationally significant....I can easily argue against Charleston..
Raleigh-Durham ranked third in votes here and is a hot topic in this thread. At the very least, its hard for me to say Charleston is more nationally recognized as Triangle being a larger region has more visibility in more areas on size alone. RDU isn't a major topic of conversation once you leave yhe East Coast either, but is it less so than Charleston? I really don't think so...
So while I disagree with those who think NCAAB is what gives Raleigh a leg up---->NCAAB is not that big of a deal in markets outside NC and a handful of other states, and yes, there ARE people who casually follow NCAAB that can tell you Duke and UNC are in NC, but have no idea or interest even, thar both are in the Raleigh area---->, as well as the fact that a lot of points people are making for Triangle aren't solid (many, many people don't know its the state capital, people without a vested interest in tech, education, etc aren't associating those things with Raleigh-Durham), I'm very skeptical that Charleston is a more nationally recognized place...
None of these cities have a particularly large visibility besides Memphis. Richmond is the city most associated with Virginia, but people don't know much about it. Contrary to this board, I haven't found that the average person associates Richmond with any Civil War era tag from 165+ years ago, and have said in the past that I've been around many a transplant/visitor to Richmond, both while living in the city and when living elsewhere and meeting folks who've been to Rich, I've never had a single conversation with a non-Richmonder about the Confederacy, Civil War, none of that stuff except on this website. So this isn't something Richmond is particularly known for in 2021, and this is yet another example of people on here overvaluing the conversations we have here and projecting them to the real world. The users of this board, all of us, fit a certain type of personality demographic that lends interest to all kinds of things about cities that the typical person doesn't have awareness about...
I fond that most people know Rich is in Virginia and its the capital but know little else, and certainly don't ascribe history from 170-odd years ago to Richmond today. Richmond doesn't have much national recognition regardless...
Birmingham's Civil Rights era history is alot more recent and still in the minds of many, as well as being the major Alabama city. Louisville isn't necessarily known for Derby if you aren't particularly into that, it isnt called the "Louisville" Derby, but I will say the events surrounding Breonna Taylor, Jack Harlow's rise, that new sitcom, the Cardinals, and Louisville's dramatically rising homicide rate in the last half-decade, these things all give Louisville a pretty nice sized profile today...
To echo most others here, Memphis is the correct answer as it has too much spotlight in too many areas compared to the other cities here...
After Memphis, its a pick'em as far as I'm concerned...
Charleston has large branding and notoriety over here on the East Coast (be it Northeast or Southeast), but isn't really a place you hear about much at all once you cross maybe Middle Tennessee. Spent plenty of time in both Memphis and Little Rock as well as points westward, Charleston is not a topic of conversation once you leave the Eastern seaboard...
Now, one could make the argument that, since the East Coast is the most populous strip in the nation, that Charleston carrying acclaim over here is enough to rank it ahead of the rest of the cities in the OP, and I could buy that argument to a degree. But there's a whole lot of country left once you leave the eastern time zone, and the thread asked which city is most nationally significant....I can easily argue against Charleston..
Raleigh-Durham ranked third in votes here and is a hot topic in this thread. At the very least, its hard for me to say Charleston is more nationally recognized as Triangle being a larger region has more visibility in more areas on size alone. RDU isn't a major topic of conversation once you leave yhe East Coast either, but is it less so than Charleston? I really don't think so...
So while I disagree with those who think NCAAB is what gives Raleigh a leg up---->NCAAB is not that big of a deal in markets outside NC and a handful of other states, and yes, there ARE people who casually follow NCAAB that can tell you Duke and UNC are in NC, but have no idea or interest even, thar both are in the Raleigh area---->, as well as the fact that a lot of points people are making for Triangle aren't solid (many, many people don't know its the state capital, people without a vested interest in tech, education, etc aren't associating those things with Raleigh-Durham), I'm very skeptical that Charleston is a more nationally recognized place...
None of these cities have a particularly large visibility besides Memphis. Richmond is the city most associated with Virginia, but people don't know much about it. Contrary to this board, I haven't found that the average person associates Richmond with any Civil War era tag from 165+ years ago, and have said in the past that I've been around many a transplant/visitor to Richmond, both while living in the city and when living elsewhere and meeting folks who've been to Rich, I've never had a single conversation with a non-Richmonder about the Confederacy, Civil War, none of that stuff except on this website. So this isn't something Richmond is particularly known for in 2021, and this is yet another example of people on here overvaluing the conversations we have here and projecting them to the real world. The users of this board, all of us, fit a certain type of personality demographic that lends interest to all kinds of things about cities that the typical person doesn't have awareness about...
I fond that most people know Rich is in Virginia and its the capital but know little else, and certainly don't ascribe history from 170-odd years ago to Richmond today. Richmond doesn't have much national recognition regardless...
Birmingham's Civil Rights era history is alot more recent and still in the minds of many, as well as being the major Alabama city. Louisville isn't necessarily known for Derby if you aren't particularly into that, it isnt called the "Louisville" Derby, but I will say the events surrounding Breonna Taylor, Jack Harlow's rise, that new sitcom, the Cardinals, and Louisville's dramatically rising homicide rate in the last half-decade, these things all give Louisville a pretty nice sized profile today...
Yeah this is how I see it. Get away from the region, Memphis is the only one instantly recognizable.
As for smaller eastern oceanfront communities, outside of obvious Florida, I can't think of much other than maybe Myrtle Beach, Atlantic City, or perhaps Savanna since there's been a movie or two set there.
It takes a fair amount of pop culture impact to be nationally known or at least a unique name that doesn't exist anywhere else.
I haven't been seeing Louisville mentioned a lot here. I think it's likely in the top 3 of these, though --- people seem to know about the baseball bats, and that the pronunciation is weird and has a few variations.
Yeah Memphis is probably #1: Elvis, BBQ, the NBA team. Paul Simon's Graceland for people over 40.
As for smaller eastern oceanfront communities, outside of obvious Florida, I can't think of much other than maybe Myrtle Beach, Atlantic City, or perhaps Savanna since there's been a movie or two set there.
It takes a fair amount of pop culture impact to be nationally known or at least a unique name that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Never having lived on the east coast and only becoming more familiar with it as an adult, Charleston is a place I've rarely, if ever, heard of in places I've lived.
The name might have vaguely sounded familiar, but unless I was into geography somewhat, I'd have no idea what state is was in or if it were directly on the coast or not. Not putting it down, it's just how it honestly was.
It took a tragic shooting to even be on my radar. Now that I know it's there and have been in the area, it does sound like an interesting place for at least more of a visit as a tourist.
Those other places I mentioned I know of because of pop culture mostly.
For this discussion, Memphis is the most well known, and it's contribution to music and logistics is probably enough to make it at least as important as any of the others.
Never having lived on the east coast and only becoming more familiar with it as an adult, Charleston is a place I've rarely, if ever, heard of in places I've lived.
The name might have vaguely sounded familiar, but unless I was into geography somewhat, I'd have no idea what state is was in or if it were directly on the coast or not. Not putting it down, it's just how it honestly was.
It took a tragic shooting to even be on my radar. Now that I know it's there and have been in the area, it does sound like an interesting place for at least more of a visit as a tourist.
Those other places I mentioned I know of because of pop culture mostly.
For this discussion, Memphis is the most well known, and it's contribution to music and logistics is probably enough to make it at least as important as any of the others.
Gotcha. While Charleston has long attracted tourists, it's only been within the past 20 years or so that its profile has been elevated nationally. The burgeoning culinary scene birthed a retail and hospitality boom, followed by more industry. But yeah the church shooting tragedy in 2015 put it in the national spotlight, and from there it spurred the movement to remove Confederate statuary from the public square nationwide.
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