The Sporting News selected their “Best Sports City” for 2009-2010 and the winning city was the Windy City of Chicago. As the NHL season drops the puck tonight, much of Chicago’s success can be traced to the Blackhawks hoisting the Cup for the first time since 1961. However, the Sporting News says it’s more than just championships. See how Missouri cities in a poll of 402 cities.
Sporting News’ Best Sports Cities rankings, which look at the 12 months from summer 2009 to summer 2010, are based on point values assigned to various categories, including but not limited to won-lost records, postseason appearances, applicable power ratings, number of teams and attendance.
Working from the bottom up, Springfield, MO finished 142nd in the poll. Anchored by the Cardinals’ AA affiliate, the city also boasts an improved Missouri State football team and a basketball program that won the CIT postseason tournament.
At 74th on the list was Columbia, finishing just behind Lawrence at 73rd (Damn Jayhawks). I know I’m biased on this, but while we can’t compete with Jayhawk basketball, Mizzou has had better success in football and our other programs are outperforming KU. Plus, Mizzou basketball has the second most conference wins in men’s hoops behind the Jayhawks, so all can’t be that bad. My only knock on Columbia…Mizzou fans who tend to arrive late and leave early.
Kansas City comes in at 51st. I think that is very charitable of the Sporting News even though K.C. is the last of the bigger American cities on the list. In K.C. we were stuck with the Royals, a 4-12 football team…oh and yes…preseason NHL hockey.
St. Louis was 26th on the list. Can’t complain too much about that considering a disappointing three and out against the Dodgers in the 2009 playoffs, a 1-15 Rams’ team and a hockey team that failed miserably after coming in with higher hopes.
Being a native of Chicago, I’m happy to boast about my home city, but let’s be realistic. Even the Sporting News admits championships are not everything (other New Orleans would be number one), but outside of the Blackhawks, there were four sports teams that failed miserably. The Bulls are still several pieces away from making a run, the Bears are bad and the Cubs and White Sox…enough said. Why not Philadelphia? They were fourth on the list and this includes the Phillies who played in the World Series, the Flyers who played for the Stanley Cup and the Eagles who made the playoffs. However, style points must be taken off for the nimrod who got tazed in the outfield during a Phillies’ game.
Check out the complete list of cities.
