best sports cities

[archbishop]

is football that popular up there? i know you can barely support a baeball team and if all you have is hockey, i think you should be lower than 41, probably closer to upper 50's you have no big name college sports teams, a decent CFL team, a OK baseball team that is never sold out, and the rest is hockey

[bassjunky]

Thats a funny comment when you consider that Buffalo is ranked 33rd.......they dont have Baseball Team, they dont have a Basketball, they nearly lost there Hockey team a few season back due to lack of attendance, and the Bills are also rumoured to be leaving town.

How can you justify those rankings

No big name college teams...that is the store all across Canada, College sport is no where near as popular as in the US. But Toronto does have afew schools that do draw decent attendance

As for Drawinf fans to the BlueJays they have the same struggles as a lot of other MLB teams at this time. Toronto has a 55,000 seat stadium that is larger ten most and looks empty with 30,000 fans in seats.

[archbishop]

sabres almost lost there team because the owner was involved in a money laundering scandal and the guy that bought them was from rochester and considered moving them over there, trust me, the sabres have never had an attendance problem, the bills will have that problem way before the sabres plus the bills were in 4 superbowls in a row, but along with titles they also take fans into considereation, and buffalo packs every game they have in all sports heck even the bisons have great attendance, and they are minor league team for ther indians and when have the bills ever been rumored to leave town? maybe a few years back when ralph was talking of stepping down?

[bassjunky]

I had heard about the Bills back in may on a Buffalo radio statio...WGR?

As for NHL attendance, unless the Sabres are winning they rank in the lower 15 teams for average attendance. Last year was an exception were they came in at #14 because they were winning. Pre strike years had them rank in the 20's out of 30 teams. Hell teams like FLorida, Atlanta, Columbus and Phoenix had higher attendance then the Sabres

[archbishop]

Hell teams like FLorida, Atlanta, Columbus and Phoenix had higher attendance then the Sabres

not last year? and the year before there was no hockey, 2 years prior to that was all the scandal going on here with the new ownership and inflated prices to pay the bills for the scandal etc.. so attendance was down, go back before that and buffalo is constantly averaging 17,500+, but unlike majority of the other arenas that hold 20+ thousand people buffalo only holds just over 18k so it cant compete in the top 10

2005-2006

ps, i never said buffalo should be high in the rankings? but TO is not a sports city, its a hockey town

[bassjunky]

Actually by your own stats page the Sabres avg 16.9 last year, so why does it matter if they have a 18,000 seat arena or a 50,000. I actaully think smaller venues help sell tickets, it the Sabres has room for 21,000 and they were only selling 16.5 then people would be in no rush to get tickets. The CFl team in MOntreal proved that fact by going to a small venue and they increased ticket sales, sellign out since that year

One thing I will give teh sabres is that they are in the top 5 to away game attendance, they are the only non original 6 team in the top 6. Which means that they have some great rivalries

I will agree that TO is much more of a Hockey town then a sports town, but for a city that has 3 major leaque teams, a CFL team as well as a pro team (AHL) and has 3 OHL semi pro teams. It seems like a sports city to me

The Jays from 77 to 93 sold out 90% of their games. From 89-93 when the dome was first built they haveraged 40,000+ fans a game...the world series killed the fan base, I dont know what happened it was crazy, noty being from toronto I only get to about 3-5 games a year, but the attendance is like 16,000-18,000

[archbishop]

when did this become a sabres bashing? its about best sport cities and toronto? sabres and bills are small market pro sports teams, with a few good amature teams and good pro teams in minor sports, lacrosse, soccer, etc... toronto has a good hockry team and good hockey fans, average baseball team with not many fans, a horrible basketball team with WNBA sized attendance until a big name team comes to town, little known if not unknown colleges and a pro football program that is second best to ours in your own country, its just not a sports city in toronto, its a great and beautiful city, but if it wassnt for hockey, iy wouldnt even be in the top 500 list


toronto doesnt belong in the top 50, im just being honest, all it has is hockey, im glad your sticking up for your home town, but come on, top 3-5 cities, are you on crack, toronto over cities like chicago, detroit, LA, NY, boston, philly, miami, SF, denver, washington, indy, i mean your talking about cities with more sports teams that all torontos sports teams and titles combined pro basketball, football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, nascar, all the big name college teams, big 10, big 12, sec, etc.. basketball titles, football titles, on and on and on, and then theres toronto, with just hockey yet should be in the top 5

[bassjunky]

Im not trying to bash the sabres, Im try to bash the list, and was using Buffalo as an example. It got a higher rating then TO and we have already covered that when it comes to pro sports Toronto more, I dont know anything about Buffalo College and U sports other then what I have heard about Buffalo U  being the last or second last ranked football team

As for your last post, Im not the only one who disagrees with Cities like Chicago. Even higher on the rankings were cities like Memphis?, Jacksonville?, Columbus?. Even Ottawa is ranked one below Toronto, they have no baseball team, no basketball team, lost there CFL team, almost lost there NHL team....How can that city be ranked that close to Toronto.

It's the list I have a problem with and nothing else

[archbishop]

lol, you are right about UB although this year its a clean house and they beat up on temple and took last weeks game to triple OT

what wrong with memphis, chicago, jacksonville, and columbus? they have every pro sports team there is and big name colleges, all the minor leauge sports, not to mention PGA, tennis, nascar etc... i know nothing of ottowa so i cant speak on that behalf, but if your right, i dont understand

this is the list of qualifications in the origianal post

regular-season won-lost records (from the most recently completed season);

playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids;

championships;

applicable power ratings;

quality of competition;

overall fan fervor as measured in part by attendance as percentage of venue capacity;

abundance of teams, though we reward quality over quantity;

stadium/arena quality;

ticket availability and prices;

franchise ownership;

marquee appeal of athletes. -- Bob Hille

ps, as far as the sabres attendance this year, it looks good, they oversold season tickets and had to cut people off because they dont have enough tickets left for people like you and me to go to a game