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There's so much more to sports than just professional baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer. Many cities have deep traditions in college athletics, auto racing, tennis, golf, and the quickly rising pickleball. There's also those cities with extremely strong sports media operations.
Vegas is definitely the sports capital. Every professional sports team will soon play there in addition to numerous fight nights there. Vegas is also where we witnessed Wembanyama's French team play on American soil for the first time. Vegas gets these type of sporting events that other cities just don't get.
Outside of Vegas, I'd say that NYC, LA, and Chicago are easy picks. DC/Baltimore, the Bay Area, Dallas, Houston, Philly, and Boston are high up there too. Denver is probably the king of all midsized cities (outside of Vegas). Being the most isolated major US city helps Denver quite a bit here. Detroit doesn't get the love that it deserves as a sports hub. The same goes for Minneapolis.
Interestingly about Minneapolis (the land of 10,000 lakes) the most famous NBA team (the Lakers) played 12 seasons in Minneapolis before relocating to rapidly growing Los Angeles. Without Minneapolis, we don't have a team called the "Lakers".
Last edited by urbancharlotte; 11-26-2023 at 07:16 AM..
One of the main appeals for Vegas pro teams is that it will become a destination for other cities’ fans. Vegas might be the perfect anti-sports capital as it comes to local fans. It’s biggest claim to fame (outside betting) is boxing, but again that isn’t a grassroots local endeavor, simply a convergence of lax state rules and outsiders flooding in to have a good time.
Fresno state football sold out every game but one this year. It's not Oregon level fandom, but I'd say the fanbase is still dedicated. Weird assumptions there.
It wasn't a guarantee that Boston would win though.
LA doesn't need many infrastructure grades to host the Olympics. A big selling point is that LA already has the sports venues in existence. Quite a few articles have been written that Los Angeles should be named the permanent host because the city can easily support it and it would keep other cities from wasting money for venues that are unused after the Olympics. https://www.google.com/search?client...&bih=695&dpr=2
The infrastructure upgrades mostly have nothing to do with the Olympics and a small minority are conflating the two. The examples in the article are state surpluses that are similar to money being distributed throughout the state, not just in LA. What many are worried about is gentrification caused by private investment.
It wasn't a guarantee that Boston would win though.
LA doesn't need many infrastructure grades to host the Olympics. A big selling point is that LA already has the sports venues in existence. Quite a few articles have been written that Los Angeles should be named the permanent host because the city can easily support it and it would keep other cities from wasting money for venues that are unused after the Olympics. https://www.google.com/search?client...&bih=695&dpr=2
The infrastructure upgrades mostly have nothing to do with the Olympics and a small minority are conflating the two. The examples in the article are state surpluses that are similar to money being distributed throughout the state, not just in LA. What many are worried about is gentrification caused by private investment.
If I recall correctly LA and Paris were awarded the games simultaneously. As there was a bit of a fiasco as bids were being pulled left and right for various reasons. It was unusual to award the 2028 and 2024 games nearly simultaneously but at the time LA and Paris were the only people who actually wanted them.
As a result, if Boston had wanted them it’s almost certain they would have gotten either 24 or 28
WSU draws 26,000 per game, but its county is only 48,000 (the micropolitan area also includes some of Idaho, including a competing university). From Seattle it's 285 miles and Spokane it's 75, with a lot of the 75 being a two-lane road. Going to Pullman is no casual thing for the fan base.
If I recall correctly LA and Paris were awarded the games simultaneously. As there was a bit of a fiasco as bids were being pulled left and right for various reasons. It was unusual to award the 2028 and 2024 games nearly simultaneously but at the time LA and Paris were the only people who actually wanted them.
As a result, if Boston had wanted them it’s almost certain they would have gotten either 24 or 28
Where's your proof of this? Boston is very provincial, I don't see Boston on the international radar.
Where's your proof of this? Boston is very provincial, I don't see Boston on the international radar.
It was chosen as the US city to represent the US in a bid for the 2024 (or 2028 Olympics). Boston got pretty far and was mainly competing with Paris at the time, so they likely were working on the 2028 bid. But behind the scenes, Bostonians were very against hosting the Olympics for a variety of reasons that included housing cost concerns, little improvement in transit infrastructure and wasting precious land for stadiums that could be used for better purposes. So they went with their backup option, LA. They didn't expect such fierce backlash from Bostonians.
To your second point, I don't understand why some people still think Boston isn't an international city. Its an Alpha City with the fifth densest urban core (After NY, Chi, Phl, SF). It is one of four cities in the country with flights to all three ME3 Air Carriers, plus numerous flights to East Asia, South Asia, The Middle East, South America, Western/Central Europe, Hawaii, and Central America. Until October 28th, it was the only city in the country to have London service on all 4 Major US Carriers that fly TATL (United, American, Delta, jetBlue) and multiple flights a day on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Boston has the third highest VC in 2023 after SF and NYC, and some years pops ahead of NY for second place. Its a majority minority city with an extremely high foreign born population and cutting edge healthcare/educational institutions. It has more life Science building underway than all office space in Lower Manhattan.
Provincial? Absolutely. But it's a boutique world class city, like a Frankfurt or Munich...
Where's your proof of this? Boston is very provincial, I don't see Boston on the international radar.
Because the IOC was so desperate they selected the hosts for 2024 and 2028 at the same time. They typically don’t select host cities like that. Had Boston been USA’s option they would have done the same thing because it seemed nobody wanted the games.
Rome, Hamburg and Budapests bids hit the same local opposition Bostons did, and got squashed. Leaving just LA and Paris who wanted them so they struck a deal.
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