OT - "Best Sports Cities"

The Sporting News recently came out with a list of the top 368 sports cities in the country:

[msn.foxsports.com]

Nice to see Boston #1, where it should be ; I personally liked seeing Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio on the list at #27 and #129, respectively. Anyone else's hometowns on the list?

Anyhow, Ithaca is ranked #212, so imagine the sports scene in the 156 cities listed below it

I can't argue with Boston as #1. But San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is #2? What the heck are they thinking? Raiders fans are dedicated (to an insane degree) but after that... No way any California town can be that high on the list. Fan fervor? I don't think so.

I can't believe New York got beaten out by the Bay Area. That just sucks.

why would we be number 212 when olean,ny is number 202 it makes no sense we should be top 150. corell hockey alone beats out the whole city of olean, ny.

Notice how Cambridge isn't necessarily included within Boston's #1 spot (since SF has to list Oakland and San Jose).

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

No way any California town can be that high on the list. [/q]


...although it looks like California leads all states with 4 locations listed in the top 40. (Meanwhile, Texas, Florida, and Ohio each have 3.)

This is a great story for attracting reader interest no matter what the rankings. It generates comment, people complain, people go online, the site gets lots of hits, etcetera.

So if the Sporting News wanted to make it multi-dimensional, how about rating best sports cities by era also. I would think Boston in the 15-year period that started with Bobby Orr, ran through Yaz and the almost World Series win, and concluded with the Larry Bird Celtics, all the while covered by the best sports section ever, the Boston Globe of Fitzgerald, Ryan, Gammons, McDonough - could it get much better than that?

Boston right now as always has a great college scene plus 1-1/2 great sports teams, the Patriots and Sox. Da Broons crap out early in the playoffs, the Celtics imploded, and I don't know if there's major league soccer in Boston, but in the U.S. major league soccer is an oxymoron regardless. No lacrosse up there worth mentioning. OK, there's women's hockey is pretty good.

Potsdam and Canton are not even listed.

I think they took the cities where their sales are soft and ranked them in that order. It's a cute ploy to sell issues, but -- shrug.

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

Potsdam and Canton are not even listed.[/q]

Fishing on the St. Lawrence does not quite make up for lack of a Triple-A baseball franchise, one supposes.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
Fishing on the St. Lawrence does not quite make up for lack of a Triple-A baseball franchise, one supposes. [/q]

But the worst football team in the Ivy League does?

Neither is Ann Arbor.

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

I can't argue with Boston as #1. But San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is #2? What the heck are they thinking? Raiders fans are dedicated (to an insane degree) but after that... No way any California town can be that high on the list. Fan fervor? I don't think so.[/q]

Keith, respectfully, I think the Bay Area makes perfect sense. If you look a little closer at the description, the rankings weight a couple of factors *besides* fan fervor, including quantity of sports and quality of teams.

Just look at the following list and tell me it isn't impressive:

SF Giants
Oakland A's
SF 49's
Oakland Raiders
SJ Sharks
Golden State Warriors
Sacramento Kings (ok, so maybe that's too far from the pennisula)
SJ Earthquakes
Sears Point Raceway
Laguna Seca Raceway

Just because you don't follow soccer, basketball or motorsports doesn't mean there isn't a metric fuckload going on any given weekend. And that list doesn't include Stanford or Cal games.

Although the fan's might not as partisan as NY fans, getting a ticket to Pac Bell Park or the Shark Tank was never easy when I lived in Oakland. In fact, the Shark Tank was sold out every single time I tried to get tickets.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

in the U.S. major league soccer is an oxymoron regardless. No lacrosse up there worth mentioning.

[/q]

The New England Revolution play at Foxboro and the Boston Cannon's are the best team in MLL this season.

After I posted my comment I did read their ranking system. I agree it makes sense based on what they measured against. For instance, they used difficulty of getting a ticket and marquee value of players as qualifications. PacBell, er SBC tickets and Barry Bonds immediately gives SF a leg up even if the Giants fans are generally lame (I guarantee tickets will be pretty easy to come by as soon as Bonds retires).

The headline on the list and the opening description seemed to emphasize fan support. On that basis I would stand by my original statement - nothing in CA can compare to the Northeast.

Needless to say this is all meaningless and I didn't lose any sleep over it. But it's the internet - I'm legally required to express my rage over trivial things!

Aww... Hartford's at 226. Tuggin' at my heart strings...

[Q]dss28 Wrote:

Aww... Hartford's at 226. Tuggin' at my heart strings...[/q]
But Storrs is in the 70s, IIRC. Helluva year for UConn.

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

But Storrs is in the 70s, IIRC. Helluva year for UConn.[/q]

*John runs outside and lights his car on fire.*

[Q]jack daniels Wrote:

why would we be number 212 when olean,ny is number 202 it makes no sense we should be top 150. corell hockey alone beats out the whole city of olean, ny. [/q] As far as I can tell, all Olean has is St. Bonaventure. How is that enough to finish ahead of any Ivy League school? All of the Ivies have much bigger sports programs than the Bonnies (with the exception of men's basketball - but I don't think St. Bonaventure is talking about that much these days.)

Maybe Hartford got extra credit for being first with the retracting roof civic center.

Olean presumably gets credit for its sports atmosphere and knowledge related to the Buffalo Bills. National sports is not exactly a big deal to most Ithacans -- just look at the Journal.

I like how Canada is included. We should go ahead and admit them as the 51st already...

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

Maybe Hartford got extra credit for being first with the retracting roof civic center. [/q]

And now they'll get credit for the Civic Center being an apartment complex....

How cool would that be... instead of having an apartment with an outdoor terrace, your terrace is effectively a skybox?

[Q]dss28 Wrote:
How cool would that be... instead of having an apartment with an outdoor terrace, your terrace is effectively a skybox?[/q]That'd be pretty cool, although Skydome did it first (I think).

Skydome has hotel rooms overlooking the fields - not apartments. It's just windows, not a terrace. And IIRC, due to some hotel guests who were more interested in scoring than the Jays' score you are required to keep the shades pulled during games.

I know, I know, and I know, but still.

Yeah, I was shocked that Canton wasn't listed either. (of course, being from there, I had some interest). Just the Massillon-Canton football rivalry is enough to take on smaller colleges and stuff. The whole town is football crazy, though the lack of any serious college athletics does reduce its fervor.