Is your town a "Baseball Town" or a "Football town"?

[J.R.]

That got me thinking, is there any town in Canada that is NOT a hockey town?

You could probably argue that Regina, Winnipeg and Hamilton are football towns seeing as how they all have the CFL and not the NHL...

I would totally agree with Regina, and Hamilton to an extent. Winnipeg is still pretty crazy for the Jets and the Manitoba Moose are popular.

Denver is 100% a football city. Sellouts since 1972, the second longest waiting list for season tickets in the NFL and a fanbase that bleeds orange and blue all year long.

No one in this city would argue this point either.

What's second? My guess would be the Avalanche.

Kitchener = hockey town. Rangers come first over any other team or sport.

[spyboy1]

I'd still like to hear some opinions on;

Baltimore

Cleveland (which really has to be football)

Houston and Dallas (got to be football in Texas)

Cincinnati - really curious to hear about this one

San Diego

[JBPerry]

I'd still like to hear some opinions on;

Baltimore

Cleveland (which really has to be football)

Houston and Dallas (got to be football in Texas)

Cincinnati - really curious to hear about this one

San Diego

of course Dallas is a football town (we are the home of the cowboys )

then, there's hs football

[leopard88]

I'd still like to hear some opinions on;

Baltimore

I'd been holding out so far.

I'd say Baltimore is definitely a football town at this point. However, the history has been up and down.

The Colts arrived shortly before the Orioles and their fairly early success made it a football town pretty quickly (witness the Colts marriage quiz in the movie "Diner" and Memorial Stadium's designation as "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum"). Support started to dwindle after Robert Irsay bought the team in 1972 (IIRC), and continued to dwindle until they left, for obvious reasons (though my friends and I were always very into the Colts -- and my parents were diehards, to the point of attending SB III (Dad only) and SB V (both)). Case in point -- if memory serves me, the 1977 2OT playoff game against the Raiders sold out too late to avoid a local TV blackout.

The Orioles were very good by the early '60s, but always struggled to draw well until they caught everyone's fancy during their AL Championship run in 1979 (the beginning of "Orioles Magic" and the era of the recently deceased Wild Bill Hagy). I distinctly remember having a bumper sticker that read "A Million or More in '74", which was meant to encourage attendance over 1 million for the season (actually considered a pretty big deal back then). After 1979, the Orioles ruled the town until the late '90s when they started to lose (which was, of course, made easier by the absence of football between 1984 and 1996).

The Orioles' decline on the field just about coincided with the arrival of the Ravens in 1996. The Ravens have been consistently good since Billick arrived in 1999 (2005 excepted) and have taken over the town. They have also been very good about reaching out to the community to build positive relationships. Once training camp starts, they tend to dominate the headlines since the Orioles have been out of contention by then for the most part (though the Orioles have kept a little buzz going this year because they have been playing competitive, exciting baseball recently -- last night excepted, that is).

[OnWis97]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Milwaukee is a football town. We might not have a true-home team, but Packers and Badgers football is at least as big a deal (if not more) than the Brewers and definetly bigger than the Bucks. Although it's kind of hard to tell if that's because Milwaukeeans really prefer football, or that we're burnt out on the Brewers and Bucks due to years of inept, apathetic ownership. I still think that if Milwaukee had an NFL team, or a major 1-A (FBS, whatever) football program, they'd be favored over every other sports offering in the city (and Wisconsin as a whole).

And I agree with what Moser said... it'll be interesting to see what happens in September if the Brewers are still in the pennant race. IIRC, last year was the first time in decades that the Brewers had a higher game-day attendance percentage than Packers did on the same day.

But as far as high school... nothing beats City Conference hoops. The winner of the conference is usually nationally ranked and considered the team to beat come state tourney time.

1986-1990, 1992: My dad, uncle and I went to see the Twins play in Milwaukee and we all concluded that Milwaukee was a great baseball town. Of course, at the time, there was no huge MLB income gap problem and the Brewers were pretty good and not that far removed from 1982. It occured to me while reading this thread, that that could have shifted. Also, back then the Pack stunk (and I was there in the Summer, so while I could say it was a good baseball town, I had no sense of football).

As for the Twin Cities, I'll go with football. The Twins recent and overall competitiveness vs. the Vikes closes the gap, but I think the Vikes are #1 in the Twin Cities.

[marlinfan]

Miami-Fort Lauderdale area:

Anglo community: Football by far

Hispanic community: Baseball

Overall: Football

[gmat]

I noticed a couple of people claimed that New York is a baseball town. Let me start off by saying that you people are insane. New York is the Mecca of all sports not just baseball and football. We have the house that Ruth Built, the World?s Most Famous Arena, the greatest game in NFL history was played here, we had the Amazon Mets, Broadway Joe, Willis Reed, Mark Messier etc, etc, etc, etc?. Even our announcers are famous and revered throughout the country. Having said all of this, however, New York should not be included in this discussion. New York is the premier city in the world and offers everything to everybody including and beyond the realm of sports.

[illwauk]

I noticed a couple of people claimed that New York is a baseball town. Let me start off by saying that you people are insane. New York is the Mecca of all sports not just baseball and football. We have the house that Ruth Built, the World?s Most Famous Arena, the greatest game in NFL history was played here, we had the Amazon Mets, Broadway Joe, Willis Reed, Mark Messier etc, etc, etc, etc?. Even our announcers are famous and revered throughout the country. Having said all of this, however, New York should not be included in this discussion. New York is the premier city in the world and offers everything to everybody including and beyond the realm of sports.

And yet you live in Jersey...

[gmat]

I noticed a couple of people claimed that New York is a baseball town. Let me start off by saying that you people are insane. New York is the Mecca of all sports not just baseball and football. We have the house that Ruth Built, the World?s Most Famous Arena, the greatest game in NFL history was played here, we had the Amazon Mets, Broadway Joe, Willis Reed, Mark Messier etc, etc, etc, etc?. Even our announcers are famous and revered throughout the country. Having said all of this, however, New York should not be included in this discussion. New York is the premier city in the world and offers everything to everybody including and beyond the realm of sports.

And yet you live in Jersey...

I said it offered everything, I did not say it was affordable.

[Fred T. Jane]

Buenos Aires is a Futbol town.

But is it a Boca or River Plate town?

[HedleyLamarr]

I noticed a couple of people claimed that New York is a baseball town. Let me start off by saying that you people are insane. New York is the Mecca of all sports not just baseball and football. We have the house that Ruth Built, the World?s Most Famous Arena, the greatest game in NFL history was played here, we had the Amazon Mets, Broadway Joe, Willis Reed, Mark Messier etc, etc, etc, etc?. Even our announcers are famous and revered throughout the country. Having said all of this, however, New York should not be included in this discussion. New York is the premier city in the world and offers everything to everybody including and beyond the realm of sports.

How's NYC's cricket team coming along?

New York City is a baseball town, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

[Discrim]

Milwaukee, I'd agree with illwauk and tell ya it's a football town first, baseball second, basketball a distant third. the whole state, I'd figure, is a football state, and then a Badger state.

Racine, we're a football town too. True, all we got is high school and semipro, but I don't think I could call this town anything else. I figure the fact that our oldest semipros, the Raiders, get their scores printed in the paper at all says somethin about that, never mind that they get a couple articles per week during the season too. heh, Brent Moss' comeback this year was simply icing. (yes, I'm talkin bout THE Brent Moss, the guy who wore #33 before that Dayne cat)

[rainmaker17]

I'd still like to hear some opinions on;

Houston and Dallas (got to be football in Texas)

I grew up in Dallas and football is by far the king there. If I had to guess, the Rangers historically are second. Despite their years of inneptitude they seem to draw fairly well. The Stars and Mavs have considerably closed the gap with their recent habit of making the playoffs. The Mavs are likey the current #2, but no one touches the Cowboys.

I'm not from Houston but I have many friends there, and visit the city quite often. Houston is unquestionably a football town, complete with a level of fanatical desperation that is sometimes frightening. When the Rockets went back to back Houston puffed its' collective chest. You couldn't avoid the stickers, shirts, billboards etc. boasting "Clutch City", "TWOston" and the like. I'm not denying the Bayou City relished their NBA titles, but I will say I think Houston for the most part would trade those two trophies in a heartbeat for a sniff of the Lombardi Trophy. Any Houstonian that tells you differently is lying. I'm going to the pre-season game on Saturday (against the Cowboys) and the troops are already assembling. For a 7PM pre-season game I'm meeting some locals at TWO in the freaking afternoon in the parking lot to tailgate. I'm a guest, so I'm just going with the flow. I might pack my flak jacket though. The Asros draw well and are a visible prescence in H-Town, but I sense the same thing about them as I do the Rockets. The town would love to see them win, but swap it in a heartbeat to be an NFL champion.

San Antonio is a huge football town, which is sometimes hard to tell with all the success the Spurs have had over the last decade. They still think they're getting an NFL team of their own which is a pipe dream. Nonetheless they're rabid about their football. Mainly the Cowboys and Longhorns.

Of course I need to mention Austin as I've lived here almost twenty years. We have no top tier professional sports so the Texas Longhorns are understandably everything here. Again football is king. Gameday in Austin is a day long event that involves parties, cookouts/tailgates and post-game revelry. The town literally feels burnt orange on Saturdays in the fall. UT baseball and basketball are well supported, yet obvious second fiddles to Horns football. The triple A Round Rock Express draw well for a 10,000 seat building, but again it doesn't compete with the UT machine. The local hockey team, the AA Ice Bats of the CHL are barely on the radar which pisses me off to no end. I just hope they don't fold at some point.

So, sorry if I was long-winded, but you asked

Short answer: Texas (and probably most of the South as Hedley said)=Football

[Nate15]

New York is definitely a baseball town. The Mets and Yankees get much more play on sports talk radio and sports sections in newspapers than anything else. Sure, Monday mornings during the fall it's all football. And yes, come springtime New York gets basketball or hockey crazy depending on what teams are doing well in that year. But overall New York is all about baseball.

Phoenix, the only other city I'm qualified to discuss, is a basketball town. Especially the last few years where the Suns have been both entertaining and successful. You'll hear about the Suns year-round in Phoenix. Also, a lot of fans in Phoenix have their own home allegiances, which I think hurts the Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Coyotes quite a bit. ASU football is also pretty popular when it's in-season, and if they were to actually, say, win a game or two in California I think the excitement would be even greater than I've ever seen before. But the Suns are still, for now, number one in Phoenix.

[rmered]

Melbourne, Australia. Aussie Rules Football town.

12 months a year news.

It's almost a religion.

We're also a horse racing town for about a month, leading up to the Melbourne Cup in early November, which we take a public holiday for.

(Anyone get Kentucky Derby Day as a holiday?)

We're a cricket town for summer, and Formula 1 Grand Prix is held here, but that's the week leading up to it and not much more.

We have a pro soccer team which is very popular, and NBL basketball, but they're a little bit behind the main sports.

[B-Rich]

....we had the Amazon Mets.....

Hey, did they move from South America?

Or maybe that's the women's divisions team, named after the legendary greek warriors...

[BB61]

If New York is such a sports town, why do their football teams play in Jersey?

(Yes, I know the answer to that -- it's just me being a smartarse.)

[DEAD!]

If New York is such a sports town, why do their football teams play in Jersey?

(Yes, I know the answer to that -- it's just me being a smartarse.)

.... it's because football is not a sport...

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I wanted to add to my previous comments on Louisville. Maybe someone born and bred in Kentucky could provide a better answer, but I still think that it's basketball first, football second. However, I completely forgot horse racing. Understandably, Derby time is a month-long, all-encompassing celebration. And, of course, it goes way beyond that. Churchill Downs is definitely part of Louisville's identity, and I'm surprised I overlooked it.

In most years, i.e. before Cardinals football's recent renaissance, Louisville goes basketball first, horse racing second, then football. I can't think of another area in the country like that. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

[FiddySicks]

I noticed a couple of people claimed that New York is a baseball town. Let me start off by saying that you people are insane. New York is the Mecca of all sports not just baseball and football. We have the house that Ruth Built, the World?s Most Famous Arena, the greatest game in NFL history was played here, we had the Amazon Mets, Broadway Joe, Willis Reed, Mark Messier etc, etc, etc, etc?. Even our announcers are famous and revered throughout the country. Having said all of this, however, New York should not be included in this discussion. New York is the premier city in the world and offers everything to everybody including and beyond the realm of sports.

Ugggh, this has to be the worlds most tired argument. "NEUU YOORK IZ THA SHEEZY SHIZZLENEZZ UND IZ 2 GRAYTE TU BEE IN CLUUDID INN NE CON VER SAY TUNN BOUT NETHINN BUT HOWE ITZ THE SHIZZLE SHEEZYNESS!!!1!11ELEVENDYSEVEN11!!!!1!(TM to Gregjigga)"