Cleveland Finds Unlucky Spot On List Of Sports Towns

CLEVELAND, OH – To sports fans here, it’s probably no big surprise that Cleveland is included in yet another list identifying our fair city is among the best sports towns in the nation. But more ominous, Cleveland got put at very unlucky No. 13 on that list.

The folks at the financial advice website WalletHub.com compiled and ranked their Best Sports Cities. There are no surprises in the top three: Boston, New York and Los Angeles. The biggest surprise, however, might be that Pittsburgh – yes, Pittsburgh – was at No. 4 and pushed Chicago into the No. 5 slot.

Go figure.

WalletHub based its rankings the number of fans for football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer, and then weighted each sport on its popularity across the nation, with football being the most popular of the five sports and soccer the least popular of the five.

Cleveland, not surprisingly, got the highest marks for its basketball fans. It’s probably noteworthy that the only championship delivered to this city since cable TV was in 2015 by LeBron James and his Cavaliers – thank you very much.

The city also got decent scores for its baseball fans, who’ve been rewarded with trips to the American League Championship Series in each of the past three decades and to the World Series three times in the past 22 years.

The city also got credit for its football fans – and it should. Possibly the only thing more amazing than the number of losing seasons we’ve endured is that there still are fans that go to the games.

Here is the list of the Top 20 Best Sports cities, as ranked by WalletHub:

1. Boston, MA
2. New York, NY
3. Los Angeles, CA
4. Pittsburgh, PA
5. Chicago, IL
6. Philadelphia, PA
7. Detroit, MI
8. Washington, DC
9. Dallas, TX
10. Atlanta, GA
11. Oakland, CA
12. Denver, CO
13. Cleveland, OH
14. Minneapolis, MN
15. Houston, TX
16. Miami, FL
17. Kansas City, MO
18. Indianapolis, IN
19. Green Bay, WI
20. Cincinnati, OH

Image by Mike Lawrie / Getty Images