How Does Detroit Not Make the Top 10 for ‘Best Sports City’?

I'm not gonna sit here and say that I'm the biggest sports fan ever. Quite honestly, I'm probably not even the most "medium" sports fan around. But what I do know is that I enjoy watching sports. And I enjoy it enough to say that I am a little bit confused by the fact that Detroit, Michigan isn't in the top 10 when it comes to "2022's Best Sports Cities."

2022's Best Sports Cities

As a matter of fact, Detroit doesn't even make it into the top 20 of the best sports cities that WalletHub recently put together.

WalletHub took a look at the five largest sports in America; football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey. Additionally, they took a look at "more than 50 key metrics related" to these sports. They did not explicitly list what those metrics were, but one could assume that they took a look at fans in attendance, the average cost to attend a game in said city, and possibly how winning a particular team has been.

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Regardless, they did also let us know that the sports were"weighted" based on the "percentage of adults in the U.S. who claim to follow that particular sport", based on a Gallup poll. Football is weighted the highest with 54%; Basketball comes in second with 16%. Baseball isn't too far behind with 13%; Soccer holds down the 4th place ranking with 11%; Hockey falls in last place with only 6%. Keep that hockey ranking in mind when I tell you where Detroit falls on the list.

Detroit is Hockeytown

We all know that Detroit is Hockeytown. The Red Wings are a heavily winning team, having won the Stanley Cup a total of 11 times from 1936 to 2008. Granted, it's been a while since they've won, but we still love them. And that goes for all Detroit sports.

Lions fans are true to the end. The Lions certainly aren't the best football team around, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a Lions fan who isn't bright and hopefully at the beginning of every football season.

After all that hemming and hawing, here's what you came here for; to find out where Detroit ranks on the list of "Best Sports Cities"...

Detroit is number 24 on the list. 

Despite the fact that Detroit ranked as number 3 when it came to hockey, because hockey is weighted so low, it doesn't make much of an impact. Detroit's worst scores are for soccer and football, respectively, with a 38 for soccer and a 30 for football.

If you want to see the other cities that beat out Detroit for the top ten spots, take a look below.

Los Angeles, CA - #1

Los Angeles does pretty decently across the board. They rank number 1 in basketball and soccer, 3 in baseball, and 5 in football. It does come in at 24 for hockey, but again, because that's weighted the lowest, that low score doesn't impact the overall total very much.

Boston, MA - #2

Boston's highest scores are with hockey (#1), and with basketball (#2).

New York, NY - #3

New York comes in at #1 for basketball.

Pittsburgh, PA - #4

While Pittsburgh might rank 99th when it comes to basketball, it doesn't matter all that much because they came in at #1 when it comes to football.

Dallas, TX - #5

Dallas has an abysmal ranking of 313 when it comes to baseball. But their #2 ranking when it comes to football saves their overall score.

Miami, FL - #6

Miami has a downright terrible hockey score of 450. But again, that doesn't matter too much because they have decent football and basketball scores of 7 and 6 respectively.

Philadelphia, PA - #7

Philly's highest score is in basketball, with a ranking of 5. The rest of their scores aren't too shabby, ranging from 14 - 19.

Denver, CO - #8

Denver has a decent hockey score of 6, and football isn't too bad either, with a score of 15. Denver's worst scores are with basketball and baseball, coming in at 24 each.

Washington, DC - #9

Even though DC's worst score is football, it's still not a bad score, coming in at 22.

Atlanta, GA - #10

While Atlanta's hockey score is a terrible 450, their baseball score helps, because it ranks as number 4.