Rank your city's sports teams by popularity

[Steely Dan]

taking a stab at chicago, i'd say:

1. bears
2. bulls
3. blackhawks
4. cubs
5. sox
6. fire
7. ND football? or maybe the big 10, collectively? there are A LOT big 10 grads in this town, but no single team dominates the local market.

(college sports play second fiddle to pro sports in chicago)




if we only had one MLB team, it'd certainly be higher on the list, but the cubs and sox cleave the city in two on that front.

neither one can unite the entire city and metro area behind them like the first 3 can.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

that got me thinking about chicago's team hierarchy:

taking a stab at it, i'd say:

1. bears
2. bulls
3. blackhawks
4. cubs
5. sox
6. fire


7. ND football? or maybe the big 10, collectively, because there so many big 10 grads in this town?

(college sports play second fiddle to pro sports in chicago)




if we only had one MLB team, it'd certainly be higher on the list, but the cubs and sox cleave the city in two on that front.

neither one can unite the entire city and metro area behind them like the first 3 can.

Interesting. I would have guessed that the Cubs and White Sox would both rank higher than the Blackhawks, even with the division.

This is a good city thread topic... though likely has been done at least once before?

Anyway, for Pittsburgh, I'd go with:

1. Steelers
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Penguins
3. Pirates
4. Pitt football
5. Penn State football
6. Pitt basketball

Penguins and Pirates at #2 and #3 could arguably be switched around, but since the Pirates have been bad for so long and the Penguins good, I think hockey has gained a stronger foothold at the distant second position to the Steelers. Pittsburgh is so Steelers dominated that it's really annoying.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Anyway, for Pittsburgh, I'd go with:

Based on everything I know and seen i'd say the Pens are ahead of the Pirates for 2nd spot. Depends on if the Pirates are good, though. Hockey is more popular in Western Penn these days than ever before.

Originally Posted by pj3000

Interesting. I would have guessed that the Cubs and White Sox would both rank higher than the Blackhawks, even with the division.

I was always under the assumption that things went Cubs, Hawks, White Sox.

Originally Posted by McBane

For the THIRD time in as many pages on this thread...there is NO community ownership in Green Bay. (What, am I shooting blanks here?) It's a myth and total bullshit. Please read my original post.

It's a publicly-owned community non-profit. Call it whatever we want to call it it's effectively the same.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

that got me thinking about chicago's team hierarchy:

taking a stab at it, i'd say:

1. bears
2. bulls
3. blackhawks
4. cubs
5. sox
6. fire


7. ND football? or maybe the big 10, collectively, because there so many big 10 grads in this town?

(college sports play second fiddle to pro sports in chicago)




if we only had one MLB team, it'd certainly be higher on the list, but the cubs and sox cleave the city in two on that front.

neither one can unite the entire city and metro area behind them like the first 3 can.

My take from the Entire Chicagoland area and even further out, as far out as national popularity.

1. Bears
2. Cubs "The Big Two" than

3-4 Bulls and Blackhawks. Jordan era it was higher, Stanley cup Hawks were higher. They alternate. I haven't seen a bulls game after Jordan and Could not get enought of the Blackhawks when they were winning, for me Blackhawks are above the Bulls, not sure about the entire metro though.

5. Sox

6. Big Ten Football, mostly, Wisconsin, Michigan, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan State mostly in Order. Plus ND. Me personally The Big Ten is #3.



7 Illinois, Loyola and DePaul college basketball.


8. Wolves MLH




9. soccer. Probably Higher in the City. I'm going to personally put it at the bottom for me because I have Zero interest, actually negative interest in soccer. But I don't mind if they can draw a crowd. I don't know anyone that follows soccer.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by bnk

My take is

1. Bears
2. Cubs

3-4 bulls and blackhawks. Jorden era it was higher, Stanley cup Hawks were higher. They alternate.

5. Sox





6. soccer

Hard to fathom that the Bulls weren't a distant first in the Jordan era.

[38 Geary]

Are we going by our own personal feel for the pulse of sports in our cities or following some sort of metric (revenue, attendance relative to league average, local media coverage allocation, championships/playoff appearances), fanbase loyalty/longevity?

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

that got me thinking about chicago's team hierarchy:

taking a stab at it, i'd say:

1. bears
2. bulls
3. blackhawks
4. cubs
5. sox
6. fire


7. ND football? or maybe the big 10, collectively, because there so many big 10 grads in this town?

(college sports play second fiddle to pro sports in chicago)




if we only had one MLB team, it'd certainly be higher on the list, but the cubs and sox cleave the city in two on that front.

neither one can unite the entire city and metro area behind them like the first 3 can.

Interesting.. As an outsider, I always thought it was Bears or Cubs 1/2, Bulls / Blackhawks 3/4 then the rest..

For the LA area, I would rank local teams as follows (Angels and Ducks would be higher in an oc centric poll)

1) Lakers
2) Dodgers



3) USC Football
4) Rams


5) UCLA Basketball
6) UCLA Footbal
7) Kings
8) Clippers
9) Galaxy
10) LAFC
11) Angels

12) Ducks
13) USC Basketball
14) Sparks

[38 Geary]

Without giving it too much in depth thought or analysis I’ll probably go with this order for now:

1. 49ers. Still king even with the Warriors recent run. Probably has the most non local support as well.
2. Warriors. They’ve got support from both sides of the Bay and with their recent run I think they edge out the Giants but just barely. Probably have the second most non local support especially with the NBA being the most global sport.
3. Giants. Fluctuates between 2 and 3 depending on the year.
4. Raiders. They still out here yo!
5. Sharks. Lots of regular season success but never do anything in the playoffs.
6. A’s. They have good diehard fans but there’s just not enough of them to make a big dent in the overall Bay Area landscape.
7. Earthquakes. Who cares?

[iheartthed]

My take on ranking Detroit sports:

Tigers
Lions (I know, it's weird)
Red Wings/Pistons depends on which team is having a good season. If both, then the Pistons will get the edge because of there being more basketball fans in general.

I ranked the Lions second because sulking over the Lions being terrible is a community building ritual.

My take on New York:
Yankees
Knicks - very similar to the Lions dynamic in commiserating over false hope or their inevitably terrible season. Probably has the most geographically dispersed fanbase of any local team, but fans nowhere near as rabid as the Yankees fans.
Giants- tends to have similar fan base as Yankees but not as rabid.
Mets/Jets- same fan base
Nets- still kinda viewed as a carpetbagger team. All of the sincere fans are in Brooklyn and almost nowhere else in the region.


Rangers- Almost never hear about them unless they are having a really good season.




Devils/Islanders - Devils fans live west of the Hudson. Islanders fans live east of the Cross Island Pkwy. You don't really hear about them unless they're having good seasons.

[dave8721]

For Miami its pretty tough. For ever it had been Dolphins, Hurricanes football then a big gap and then everything else. But I think the Heat may have pushed their way into the top somewhere.
1. Dolphins (even if its we-know-they-will-always-fail relationship)
2. Heat
3. Hurricanes football



4. Panthers/Marlins. It was Marlins as an easy 4 but they seem to fading more into obscurity with each passing year and the Panthers are the best team in Hockey right now. And the most fun to watch (highest scoring team in the league and play the most fun up-tempo style).

Its crazy how the Dolphins completely switched as a franchise. From 1970 to 2003 they had 2 losing seasons and were the winningest franchise in the NFL. Since then they have won 1 division title in the last 20 years (the year Brady was hurt), they have no playoff wins in 22 years.

[thoughtcriminal]

My Philly sports team ranking: this changes slightly year to year, depending on how the teams are performing, but in general:
1) E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles
2) Phillies
3) Flyers
4) Sixers
5) Combined Big 5 / City 6 Basketball, with Villanova probably topping the list
6) Philadelphia Union soccer

[mhays]

Hmmm.

Seahawks by far

Mariners
UW football
(placeholder for NBA if we get a team)

Kraken
Sounders

UW basketball
Storm

The Seattle Times reported popularity stats and demographics compiled/extrapolated by Nielsen recently, based on 2020-2021 data (Seattle knew it was getting NHL but wasn't playing yet). Local followers of each sport (not specific to teams, and omitting NBA) totaled:
--NFL 1,550,000
--MLB 847,000
--MLS 487,000
--NHL 396,000
--WNBA 276,000

We'll see how popular hockey is long-term. Until a year ago there were zero rinks in the city limits, and while basketball hoops are everywhere I'm not sure I've ever seen a net in a driveway. I'm guessing they'll do well despite this. One reason is a lot of our population is from the upper midwest.

[badrunner]

Here's the total annual attendance for LA area teams. Mostly 2021 data.

Dodgers - 2,804,693
Angels - 1,505,024
Lakers - 522,250
Rams - 571,791
Kings - 575,151
Chargers - 572,791
Clippers - 459,361

The Chargers aren't going anywhere.

[Greavsie]

For London's Football Teams imho:
1.Tottenham Hotspur
2.Arsenal
3.Chelsea
4.West Ham United
5.Crystal Palace
6.Queens Park Rangers
7.Fulham
8.Brentford
9.Millwall
10.Leyton Orient

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

For the LA area, I would rank local teams as follows (Angels and Ducks would be higher in an oc centric poll)

1) Lakers
2) Dodgers



3) USC Football
4) Rams


5) UCLA Basketball
6) UCLA Footbal
7) Kings
8) Clippers
9) Galaxy
10) LAFC
11) Angels

12) Ducks
13) USC Basketball
14) Sparks

So the Chargers are below the Sparks?
You probably just forgot. I'd put them at #9 below the Clippers.

[SAN Man]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Here's the total annual attendance for LA area teams. Mostly 2021 data.

Dodgers - 2,804,693
Angels - 1,505,024
Lakers - 522,250
Rams - 571,791
Kings - 575,151
Chargers - 572,791
Clippers - 459,361

The Chargers aren't going anywhere.

The Chargers give Angelenos an opportunity to see the good teams, favorite teams or their hometown team if they're a transplant. Their attendance figures will do well because of that.


San Diego:
1. Padres



then
SDSU basketball or football, both have been exciting in recent years
then the Chargers love hate relationship
Gulls minor league hockey
then probably the Lakers
then maybe the Xolos for soccer? I see a lot of TJ hats and bumper stickers especially in Chula Vista and National City areas.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by SAN Man

The Chargers give Angelenos an opportunity to see the good teams, favorite teams or their hometown team if they're a transplant. Their attendance figures will do well because of that.

Qualcomm stadium in SD used to be taken over by opposing fans too so that's nothing new for the Chargers. They are in a much better situation now.

Originally Posted by SAN Man

San Diego:
1. Padres

Keep actin up and we'll take them too

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I would have guessed that the Cubs and White Sox would both rank higher than the Blackhawks, even with the division.

maybe they do?

baseball is really hard to suss out in chicago because it is so freaking divisive.

it's the only city left that still has its two old school MLB teams playing in it.

i mean, this cubs/sox shit goes back to the days when my great-grandfathers were young men.

i might be more keenly aware of the division than others because i'm the product of cubs/sox intermarriage.

my maternal side is northside german cubs fans going back generations, and my paternal side is southside irish sox fans going back generations. my mom and dad getting together was like a modern day Capulet and Montague situation.


baseball is really popular in chicago, but it never unites us as a city, so it feels really different than all of the other local teams. it's hard to place it in the overall hierarchy.

[SAN Man]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Qualcomm stadium in SD used to be taken over by opposing fans too so that's nothing new for the Chargers. They are in a much better situation now.



Keep actin up and we'll take them too

The San Fernando Padres
The Los Angeles Padres of San Fernando

Every time the Padres host a series against the Dodgers, royal blue hats invade the Gaslamp Qtr. They make the drive down, get a room make a night out of it and bar hop before/after the game.

[pdxtex]

U of O Ducks
Portland Trailblazers
OSU Beavers
Portland Timbers
If we had football its the Seahawks