You win this time, Winston-Salem
The Sporting News has come out with its list of the top 99 sports cities in the country and Greensboro didn't make the list.
Given the fates of hockey and indoor football in this town, as well as the drop of the Dynamo down from pro soccer to the PDL, that's not exactly surpising.
But it does sting a bit to have our dear sister city make the charts. Looking at the criteria, I'd have to base this solely on the presence of Wake Forest. There really can't be any other reason.
I'm not goign to get into a heavy critique of the rankings because any such system is inherently flawed, but I can't resist a few not-so-subtle jabs.
I really think they put too much emphasis on the success of the teams and not enough on the fervor of the fans. How else can you explain how Miami - one of the worst towns in America for fan attendance, if not the worst - is No. 2 on the list and Atlanta - I love my Braves, but jeez that place is a portrait of pro sports apathy - is No. 13?
I'm guessing there's a method to TSN's madness. By basing its rankings more on results and less on whether anyone in the town actually cares about said results, TSN insures that there will always be movement in its rankings. Otherwise, Miam's always down lower because its fans don't care about any team that doesn't have Dolphins somewhere in its name (just ask Frank Haith). Heck, even with a huge Latino population, Miami couldn't support an MLS franchise that was one of the best in the league! Meanwhile, Green Bay, the ultimate one-trick-pony of sports towns, would be a permanent top five fixture because of its cheeseheads.
So TSN uses a murky formula that allows it to mix things up and occassionally slip in a Winston-Salem over a clearly more deserving Greensboro (hey have you seen our Grasshoppers attendance lately?).
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Whatever the formula, National Championships don't hurt:
"32. Gainesville, Fla. 58 Hookup. How's this for the ultimate sports coupling: One of the nation's best college football towns goes gaga over . . . hoops? (And you thought we were going to make some cheap, tawdry Joakim's-a-hottie joke.) "
Posted on August 3, 2006 7:47 AM
So, Jim, by Jim's reasoning, Winston-Salem makes the list because of Wake's field hockey national titles. Woo-hoo! I guess Guilford College's D-III national golf titles aren't such a big deal.
Posted on August 3, 2006 5:36 PM
Here's another possible disturbing conclusion, Jeff and Jim.
What if they really did lump Greensboro in with Winston-Salem? Given Greensboro's hosting of both the men's and women's ACC tournaments, as well as first and second round games in the NCAA tournament, that might explain the presence of W-S in the poll.
But that would mean that the folks at TSN consider Greensboro to be some anonymous suburb of Winston. The horror! The horror!
Maybe they wanted to use Triad, but couldn't figure out whether the third city was supposed to be High Point or Burlington.
Posted on August 4, 2006 3:47 PM