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KC Royals Reason Kansas City Ranked 19th Best Sports City

By Alec Tilson

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Kansas City is the 19th best sports city in the country, according to FanSided.com’s Matt Dyce. Kansas City comes in one spot ahead of in-state rival St. Louis, and one spot behind Atlanta.

It’s no secret that the KC Royals 2014 World Series run put Kansas City back in the spotlight as far as sports cities go:

"Kansas City gets a big boost on this list because of the Royals resurgence and success. The Royals climbed up to the top of the American League, earning a World Series berth last where they eventually fell to the San Francisco Giants. They also rank top among the league in 2015, giving credence to their recent success. – Matt Dyce, FanSided"

Every sports fan with a television and half a mind saw how this city rallies. Sporting Park, Arrowhead Stadium and Kansas Speedway help too. Plus three major universities battling for local bragging rights keeps it interesting year-round.

The ranking seems low, but not necessarily unfair.

Kansas City was ranked ahead of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Milwaukee.

Luckily, as KC fans, we know that we’re one of the best sports towns in the country in reality. Perfectly saturated with the right number of teams, a good balance and diversity in sport, and the unwavering m.o. as down-home Midwestern die-hards. That’s my biased understanding, anyway.

You can probably guess which cities were toward the top. Hint: the ones with a lot of people. Which means a lot of die-hards, but a lot of fair-weathers, too.

Unfortunately, and Kansas City fans might have a fair gripe here, there’s some other questionable sports cities ranked ahead of KC, if you ask me.

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Like Phoenix and Miami, which have NHL team’s they don’t support according to ESPN.com’s attendance numbers. Phoenix has 1.5 million people living there, and they averaged 13,345 fans at home games last season.

Cleveland came in at 17, and Minneapolis at 16. Indianapolis was ranked 14. I don’t know much about these three cities as far as the sports culture, but it’d take a full weekend trip, a four-hour tailgate or two and some of the raucous venues in the country to convince me that Cleveland, Minneapolis and Indianapolis are better sports towns than KC.

No disrespect to these cities and its fans – small markets stick together – I’d just need to see it to believe it. And that’s what rankings are for: discussion and debate.

Kansas City was ranked ahead of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Milwaukee.

Where do you rank Kansas City among the best sports cities in the country?

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