TL, won't read: LA's actually a really great sports city, definitely underrated. It's not the best, but it's far from the worst. I outline some reasons and give specific examples as to why this is the case below.
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Originally Posted by edale
Hm, I'm not seeing this. LA has always had a huge base of working class Latinos-- I'm not sure that community is really growing as a percentage of the city or county. Also, I think a lot of recent immigrants are among the most apathetic about football. I was in Koreatown Saturday night and you would have never guessed the Super Bowl was happening down the street, or that the local team was playing. It's hard to imagine immigrants from Asia and Central America are going to be passionate LA sports fans from the jump.
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Really? Lots of first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans here seem to love the Dodgers. My late Chinese grandmother, who didn't speak a lick of English, followed the Lakers (or at least showed an interest in them).
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Awards season is arguably a bigger deal in LA than any sports post-season.
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You must not have been here in the late 00s for the Lakers' championship years; every regular season game was appointment viewing. I drove down the 10 during rush hour the day after Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Finals and counted 100+ Lakers flags.
Moreover, Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals drew a 39.7% rating in LA and a 33.9% rating in Boston (
source)... and the LA market is 2.5 times that of Boston. Maybe fewer Bostonians tuned in because they knew their Celtics were going to lose?
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Now, just based on sheer size of LA alone, you have enough of everybody to find support for most things. I don't doubt that the Rams have pretty passionate fans, and I'd imagine East and South LA are where many of those fans live. East LA's support for the Dodgers is absolutely legit-- those are some of the most passionate baseball fans I've ever encountered. But overall, I don't find the same passion for sports here as I've encountered in other cities.
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The Lakers have the most passionate NBA fan base, success notwithstanding. Somebody in this thread said NYC is just as passionate about the Knicks... I disagree. The Knicks/NBA are not (nor could they ever) be the primary coverage on local sports talk radio all year long like they are here in LA. And FWIW, I actually listened to NY sports talk radio when the Knicks had that great season in 2012-13. And like I said, everyone from my late Cantonese-only-speaking grandmother to a random white hippie guy (not your "stereotypical" sports fan) driving an old school VW wagon absolutely covered in Lakers iconography (including a "Boston sucks" sign for good measure) in Monterey Park (of all places) to Sam Nazarian complaining that he couldn't watch Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals while in Dubai (or something to that effect; I saw it on Twitter 12 years ago).
MLB...
The Dodgers easily have one of the best fan bases in all of baseball, regardless of "arrive by 3rd, leave by 7th" or the idea that Mexican-Americans don't count as "real fans," as I once read on City Data. Yes, we've had several cases of thugs beating up fans of opposing teams, but they don't represent the entire fan base. I also distinctly remember you saying that LA isn't as passionate about the Dodgers as SF is about the Giants, and I would vehemently disagree. Let's not forget that the Giants were once on the cusp of moving to Tampa Bay (thank goodness they didn't). And there are never more Giants fans at Dodger Stadium than vice versa, thanks in part to the largest (organized) traveling fan base in all of MLB — Pantone 294 (they have over 100K followers on Instagram, and their account is verified with a blue check mark).
This billboard appeared right next to Fenway. Many people thought it was to troll Sox fans, but the guy behind it explained that it was an earnest expression of gratitude, that the Red Sox were his second favorite team, and that he would even like to live in Boston one day:
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fBBSJdEz...22391303/betts_billboard_pantone294.jpeg
NHL...
LA's not a cold-weather city (to state the obvious), so fandom is obviously more fickle. That being said, the Kings have their core of die-hard fans. Kings fandom among whites in the South Bay Beach Cities might even equal or exceed Lakers fandom. This billboard appeared in Times Square right across the street from MSG before the start of the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals (Will Ferrell is actually a Kings fan), before some New Yorker(s) decided to change it with a pro-Rangers ad.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2089...rell-video-outside-madison-square-garden
NFL... you said it. It's a hodge-podge.
College football...
I already said that the Trojans don't have "staying power" like other SEC, Big Ten, and ACC programs. I would say LA's the best large college football city behind Atlanta, Detroit (I consider Ann Arbor Detroit), Chicago (Notre Dame and lots of Big Ten alumni), and maybe Miami.
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Conclusion: No, LA isn't quite Boston, Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia. But at the same time, Rust Belt / cold-weather cities do seem to get a pass. The Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) once averaged like 9-13,000 a game for an entire season. In fact, Mike Golic (a Cleveland native and presumably Indians/Guardians fan) once actually called this out on his radio show Mike & Mike. Detroit Tigers' attendance quickly fell a cliff after recent WS appearances, and the Lions were dead last in attendance this season.
Of course you're going to feel a stronger sports craze in mid-sized cities (e.g. Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinnati) during championship runs. There are fewer transplants and things to do, and quite frankly that kind of sports success doesn't happen frequently in most of those cities.
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