How Does St. Cloud Stack Up As A ‘Sports Town’ Compared To Other Cities

When it comes to the biggest sports cities in the United States, the first that come to mind for most people are Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, New York and Dallas.

Heck, even Minneapolis features FOUR top-level professional teams: the Timberwolves, Lynx, Twins and Vikings.

WalletHub launched a study to find out which cities can lay claim to being the best in the country for sports fans.

“Sports can cause rivalries between cities, but can also give people a deep appreciation for places other than their hometown. The best sports cities overall tend to be those with the highest-performing, most-popular professional teams, like Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh and New York. When you filter by city size, though, there are a ton of amazing local sports scenes to discover," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. "For example, Green Bay, WI, is a midsize city with one of the richest football cultures in America, and Clemson, SC, is a small city with high-level, affordable games across multiple sports at the collegiate level.”

The study ranked cities based on each sport- football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey.

Minneapolis had a total score of 34.14 and finished highest amongst Minnesota cities, ranking 16th overall.

Minneapolis ranked 18th in football (which seems low since they have the Gophers AND Vikings), 10th in baseball, 25th in basketball, 264th (!) in soccer and 48th in hockey.

St. Paul scored 18.57 (42nd overall) and ranked 118th in football, 49th in baseball, 224th in basketball, 17th for basketball and a ridiculously low 12th for hockey despite hosting the Wild, Frost and D1 St. Thomas.

After quite a bit of scrolling, Bemidji is next in the rankings with a score of 0.92 (44th in hockey) and an overall ranking of 379th, followed by Duluth at 0.73 (59th in hockey) and 387th overall.

Right after Duluth at 388th overall (out of 400) is St. Cloud, who scored 0.71 thanks to a ranking of 60th overall in hockey.