OT - "Best Sports Cities"

[Avash]

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

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2631604

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 :-P

[KeithK]

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.

[Will]

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

[jack daniels]

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. ::screwy::

[Will]

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

[Avash]

[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.)

[billhoward]

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.

[jtwcornell91]

Potsdam and Canton are not even listed. :-P

[Greg]

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.

[billhoward]

[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.

[jtwcornell91]

[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?
 ::nut::

[ninian '72]

Neither is Ann Arbor.    ::nut::

[jeh25]

[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.

[jeh25]

[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.

[KeithK]

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! :-D