TSN: Annual Top Sports Cities List

Rankings & Lists Sports Junkies17

Sporting News‘ annual list of the top sports cities in America is out today and can be seen by clicking here.

Raleigh+Durham+Chapel Hill comes in at #17 while Charlotte hits the list at #23.

Mike DeCourcy has a good essay on this year’s owner of the top spot – ‘Pittsburgh lives in you, even when you live somewhere else’.

I don’t know if you have ever had the pleasure of spending much time in Pittsburgh, but it is a very under-rated/under-appreciated place.

The timing of this sports list is pretty good as it allows us to highlight this conversation about the list of “Smartest Cities in America” that we are also currently having.

TSN’s Top 25 are as follows:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Philadelphia
3. Boston
4. Chicago + Evanston
5. Los Angeles
6. New York
7. Phoenix + Tempe
8. Miami
9. Dallas-Fort Worth
10. Detroit + Ann Arbor + Ypsilanti
11. Houston
12. Nashville
13. Atlanta
14. Washington
15. Tampa-St. Petersburg
16. Minneapolis-St. Paul
17. Raleigh + Durham + Chapel Hill, N.C.
18. Denver + Boulder
19. Salt Lake City + Provo
20. Indianapolis
21. Anaheim
22. Cleveland
23. Charlotte
24. San Jose + Palo Alto + Santa Clara
25. New Orleans

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Rankings & Lists Sports Junkies

17 Responses to TSN: Annual Top Sports Cities List

  1. Alpha Wolf 10/08/2009 at 10:27 AM #

    Any top sports cities list that has Atlanta in the Top 20 is not worth the bytes it takes on a hard drive. The ATL is one of the WORST sports cities in the world.

    For example, their baseball team is coming down the stretch, 8-2 in the their last ten and within two games of getting in the playoff race, and how many do they draw to The Ted? 29,000 fans.

    GT often has empty seats for basketball and football.

    And so forth and so on.

  2. bradleyb123 10/08/2009 at 10:33 AM #

    I don’t agree or disagree with the order of cities on this list.

    For some reason, I just like it when we put the smackdown on Charlotte. 🙂

  3. 61Packer 10/08/2009 at 11:49 AM #

    Consider the source of the list, The Sporting News, which seems to lean heavily toward pro sports much more so than college sports. Like Alpha Wolf, I don’t care at all for Atlanta’s sports market, which to me has always been one-dimensional (Braves), and I think both Orlando and Baltimore, which didn’t even make the list, are better venues. I’m puzzled over why Nashville is rated above us as well. I’ll take Duke, UNC, State and the Hurricanes any day over Belmont, Vanderbilt, the Predators and the Titans.

    One of the draws that college sports has over the pros is that for the average sports fan they are much more affordable events to attend than are pro games. Our area may not have an NFL or (thank God) an NBA franchise, but the Triangle does have many colleges with all kinds of sporting events.

    And, for the most part, it’s nice to attend outdoor sporting events here during the months of November through March. Try doing that on a regular basis in any of the top 4 cities on this list. In fact, over half the cities in the top 10 require a huge investment in winter clothing and a bodyguard to go with it. No thanks.

  4. ncsslim 10/08/2009 at 12:00 PM #

    The inclusion of Miami is pathetic. They have the most unusual MLB team in the league, one that sells off players like the Pirates, but still wins world series. And not only is the reg season attendance pitifull, they can’t even sell out series games, much less the playoffs. They lost their MLS franchise, even with one of the best demographic situations in the country, at a time that the league is actually taking hold. ESPN can’t hold a Gameday at Landshark, or even on campus in Coral Gables because they are rightfully afraid that know one will bother to show. A great geographical location, an absolute happening place, but (probably) a piss poor place to live, and certainly not a great sport city.

  5. Dogbreath 10/08/2009 at 12:26 PM #

    Am I the only one who is peeved when they lump us together with cities that are each 25 miles away? “Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill” is no more a city than “New York-Newark-Jersey City” or “Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington”

  6. PackerInRussia 10/08/2009 at 1:28 PM #

    Without the other two points of the triangle, Raleigh is probably not on that list.

  7. ktoh 10/08/2009 at 1:32 PM #

    ^Yes I agree the only mention of us in the article was that we went to a bowl game last year.

  8. Alpha Wolf 10/08/2009 at 1:32 PM #

    I agree with Dogbreath. Raleigh-Cary is the 47th MSA in the country and is separated from Durham-Chapel Hill. They are considered two separate entities for demographic purposes.

  9. LKNpackfan 10/08/2009 at 1:39 PM #

    The asshats in the Capital Building share your sentiments bradleyb

  10. Daily Update 10/08/2009 at 2:06 PM #

    Atlanta is an awesome sports city. Super Bowls, Final Fours, SEC Bball tournaments, ACC Bball tournaments, multiple bowl games, pre-season SEC/ACC matchup, Nascar, multiple professional golf tournaments, NBA, NHL, MLB. Atlanta is anything but one dimensional.

    It is impossible to characterize Atlanta any other way than a great sports town having actually lived there. There just happen to be a whole lot of options (and a whole lot of transplants who don’t care about the Atlanta Braves).

  11. Daily Update 10/08/2009 at 2:08 PM #

    The Braves finished 15th in attendance this year by the way.

  12. ncsslim 10/08/2009 at 2:20 PM #

    The top 25 has 7 multiple city locations; not sure why the inclusion of the Triangle region drew special attention in this forum. And PackerinRussia is correct: no Durham/CH, no mention at all. The bigger question is why Durham and Orange counties are in a separate MSA from Wake county, when they share the same airport, TV market, and virtually every other aspect that defines a single market. Salisbury (50 miles away separated by desolation) is part of the Charlotte market, but Durham is not part of Raleigh’s? I would have to think that separation was much more due to political pressure from Durham’s insecurity than any remote advantage to the region as a whole. At least “Raleigh/Cary” is back over a mil in population. May Durham squander in it’s quest for “independence”!

  13. Alpha Wolf 10/08/2009 at 3:41 PM #

    “It is impossible to characterize Atlanta any other way than a great sports town having actually lived there. There just happen to be a whole lot of options (and a whole lot of transplants who don’t care about the Atlanta Braves).”

    Well, I have lived in Atlanta (Doraville and later up in Rome) and also have spent a lot of time in Chicago and Philly. They have all of that Atlanta has, save for no NASCAR race in Philly or bowl games. Still, the difference in interest in sports in those towns and Atlanta is like night and day.

    The NHL team’s attendance is so poor there is talk about them moving. Last year, Atlanta was dead last in both attendance and capacity in the NHL, averaging just 13,900 fans a game, according to the UPI. If that comes pass, it would be the second NHL team Atlanta has lost due to lack of interest.

    The Hawks were averaging 16,821 fans per home game last season, 20th in the league, again according to UPI. There is some interest in the Association there, however, which is reflected in the TV ratings. In fairness, that may well be a marketing issue with the Hawks moreso than the fans.

    While the Braves are 15th in attendance (in the 8th largest MSA mind you) as a sports-town it is telling that in their halycon days playoff tickets would go begging until the latter part of the LCS. I once purchased tickets to the World Series there on the day of the game. Try that in almost any other town.

    Oddly, the team most Atlantans follow most intently is not even located in their city. It is 80 miles to the east in Athens.

  14. mushpack 10/08/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    Doraville? Rome? You’ve never lived in Atlanta, Broseph.

    A-town is a great college and pro sports town. As a resident of the city of Atlanta, I like the fact that you can actually get tickets to events. Couple that with Athens and the golf tourneys in Augusta and East Lake and you have a sports lover’s paradise.

  15. hoop 10/08/2009 at 6:26 PM #

    The funny thing to me is that we are the only entry on the list where they feel like they have to list the STATE where the cities are located. Ha!

  16. ncsslim 10/08/2009 at 7:58 PM #

    ^ Yeah, but that’s when you caught up in playing by the “big market” rules, i.e, their ignorance about you shows your ignorance, and your ignorance about them shows, again, your ignorance. You can’t win.

  17. Alpha Wolf 10/09/2009 at 12:13 PM #

    “Doraville? Rome? You’ve never lived in Atlanta, Broseph.”

    Right…that’s why I worked Midtown. Because I didn’t live there. By your logic, only people that live in Fulton County live in Atlanta, which would be news to those in Cobb, Dekalb and the other 26 counties in the metroplex.

    I’ll give you a little hint about my family’s ties to the area: my grandparents live in Ainsley Park, in a house passed down from my grandfather’s parents. They are not exactly Johnny Come Lately From Yankeeland. As far as Atlanta goes, neither am I.

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