EAST LANSING rated No. 44 among Sporting News Best Sports Cities

East Lansing, Mich., takes its place among the elite of college towns, at No. 44 out of 399 North American cities in Sporting News’ annual Best Sports Cities rankings. Pittsburgh—which reclaimed its title of “City of Champions” with the Penguins and Steelers—is No. 1. Boston, last year’s No. 1 city, slips to No. 3.
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“Few cities that don’t have a team in a major professional sports league are able to reach as high on our list as East Lansing did, and that’s because of Michigan State basketball and football,” said Sporting News chief of correspondents Bob Hille, who has coordinated the Best Sports City rankings since they were expanded 13 years ago. “We celebrate the Spartans’ successes in cities like East Lansing with this list.”
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This year’s Best Sports Cities list features almost 400 cities and towns in the U.S. and Canada, ranked by a system that assigns points to a variety of categories, including a city’s number of teams, their regular-season won-lost records, playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids, championships, applicable power ratings, fan fervor, attendance and more.
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The full list can be found at: http://www.sportingnews.com/general/article/2009-10-06/best-sports-city-list
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Sporting News began its Best Sports Cities rankings in 1993. Past winners:
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2008—Boston         Â
2007—Detroit
2006—Chicago
2005—Boston
2004—Boston
2003—Anaheim/Los Angeles
2002—Boston
2001—New York
2000—St. Louis
1999—New York
1998—Detroit
1997—Denver
1995—Denver
1994—Cleveland
1993—Chicago
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Note: There was no Best Sports City in 1996 as the ratings were expanded and refined.