Where Minnesota’s Sports Cities Land On The National List
When it comes to the biggest sports cities in the United States, the first that come to mind for most people are Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, New York and Dallas.
Heck, even Minneapolis features FOUR top-level professional teams: the Timberwolves, Lynx, Twins and Vikings.
WalletHub launched a study to find out which cities can lay claim to being the best in the country for sports fans.
SMALL CITIES, BIG FANDOMS
“Sports can cause rivalries between cities, but can also give people a deep appreciation for places other than their hometown. The best sports cities overall tend to be those with the highest-performing, most-popular professional teams, like Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh and New York. When you filter by city size, though, there are a ton of amazing local sports scenes to discover," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. "For example, Green Bay, WI, is a midsize city with one of the richest football cultures in America, and Clemson, SC, is a small city with high-level, affordable games across multiple sports at the collegiate level.”
The study ranked cities based on each sport- football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey.
Minneapolis had a total score of 31.74 and finished highest amongst Minnesota cities, ranking 16th overall.
MINNEAPOLIS IS A SPORTS HAVEN
Minneapolis ranked 13th in football (which seems low since they have the Gophers AND Vikings), 28th in baseball, 12th in basketball, 273rd (!) in soccer and 49th in hockey.
St. Paul scored 19.98 (36th overall) and ranked 93rd in football, 270th in baseball despite hosting the Triple-A St. Paul Saints, 50th in basketball, 16th for soccer and a ridiculously low 11th for hockey despite hosting the Wild, Frost and D1 St. Thomas.
ST. CLOUD RANKED
After quite a bit of scrolling, Bemidji is next in the rankings with a score of 0.93 (44th in hockey) and an overall ranking of 385th, followed by St. Cloud at 391st, who scored 0.71 thanks to a ranking of 58th overall in hockey.
Right behind St. Cloud is Duluth at 0.73 (59th in hockey) and 392nd overall.
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