Best US Sports Cities

Yeah, I recall how the Atlanta Braves were winning their division every year for a while there and you would start seeing a half-empty stadium for their home playoff games. How do you not sell out a playoff game - especially multiple playoff games? Maybe they just got spoiled by the repeat playoff appearances and took it for granted.

 

The thing that I don't get is baseball has been in Atlanta for a long time. It seems pretty clear to me the sport will never have a significant presence in the area.

And on the flip side, New York was one of the hotbeds for college athletics but it's all but died out across the city and will never regain the footing it once had.

 

The Braves had a great run for over a decade. It doesn't make sense how they were able to have home playoff games that were not sold out. Surely there would be enough casual fans who would pay the money to watch playoff baseball.


College athletics are king in the South, but the North seems to be able to balance college and pro sports.

 

I'm surprised you have Washington so high. It is a Redskins town, but that is about it. Yes, the Caps are popular right now because of Ovechkin and they're good, but usually the city doesn't give a squat about the Caps. No one cares about the Wizards. It has already had three iterations of the Senators/Nationals leave the city. The Senators/Nationals 4.0 is at the bottom of the league in attendance, despite a nice new stadium near a Metro stop. Overall, Washington is a terrible sports town. I would definitely put Dallas, San Fran/Oakland/San Jose, Minneapolis, Denver and Phoenix way ahead of Washington.

Also, interesting that you did not have Chicago on your list.