Sporting Capital of the World

Did Boris Johnson just call London the sporting capital of the world because it scored a grid iron exhibition match? Outrageous! London wouldn't even be in the top 10.

Are you talking about the 49ers-Broncos game?

Yeah, it's a real coup, landing a game where the contestants have a combined 3 wins.

I can see John Elway and Joe Montana faceplaming as we speak--and for so many reasons...

Given that London has the most famous ground for 3 of the world's 5 most popular sports number the claim is of course completely unfounded.

Soccer - Wembley. Most well known ground of the most popular sport
Cricket - Lord's. Considered the home of cricket, the world's second most popular sport
Rugby - Twickenham. World's most famous rugby ground...4th or 5th most popular sport depending where you look
Tennis - Wimbledon. Most famous tennis tournament

Not to mention the small sporting event taking place here in a couple of years time...

Name me one city that can compare

Melbourne of course.

New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis

No US city comes close.

Melbourne is quite away in front of anywhere else I can think of. Most countries seem to spread the international events between cities, but we just take all the majors. And they're all placed at either end of the year, because March - September is taken up by the important AFL season.

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

I'm not saying Indy compares to NYC or Chicago, but there's also the Colts, the Pacers (and their president, state legend Larry Bird), Hinkle Fieldhouse, the nearby birthplace of John Wooden, the headquarters of the NCAA (along with a Final Four every four years), and the HQ of several olympic programs.

And besides The Race, the track also hosts one of two US motorcycle Grand Prix events, one of the more popular stock car races, and was until recently the site of the US F1 Grand Prix.

JaysonAych wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

I'm not saying Indy compares to NYC or Chicago, but there's also the Colts, the Pacers (and their president, state legend Larry Bird), Hinkle Fieldhouse, the nearby birthplace of John Wooden, the headquarters of the NCAA (along with a Final Four every four years), and the HQ of several olympic programs.

And besides The Race, the track also hosts one of two US motorcycle Grand Prix events, one of the more popular stock car races, and was until recently the site of the US F1 Grand Prix.

wait, what? where's it being held now?

Turbojett wrote:

JaysonAych wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

I'm not saying Indy compares to NYC or Chicago, but there's also the Colts, the Pacers (and their president, state legend Larry Bird), Hinkle Fieldhouse, the nearby birthplace of John Wooden, the headquarters of the NCAA (along with a Final Four every four years), and the HQ of several olympic programs.

And besides The Race, the track also hosts one of two US motorcycle Grand Prix events, one of the more popular stock car races, and was until recently the site of the US F1 Grand Prix.

wait, what? where's it being held now?

Austin, Texas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_grand_prix#The_Future:_Austin

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

Every city in the world has a long list of sports teams based there.

Name me one other city that has as many stadiums and teams that are known throughout the world as London. Noone outside the US has ever heard of half of those teams you mention. Ney York is the only one that has any global appeal, and the Lakers.

Im afraid other than Melbourne Park i couldnt name a single venue in Melbourne. You ask anyone anywhere in the world and they'll known Wembley Stadium.

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

I'm afraid other than Melbourne Park i couldnt name a single venue in Melbourne. You ask anyone anywhere in the world and they'll known Wembley Stadium.

Um, Albert park (grad prix circuit) and the MCG (10th largest stadium in the world that has seen a ridiculous number of major events over the years) to start with.

Then we have Flemmington where the Melbourne cup is ran (this Tuesday, and is one of the richest horse races in the world. Plus I always take the monday off so my 4 day weekend started 2 hours ago. ) and that the city actually gets a public holiday for. Then we have Phillip Island which isn't actually in Melbourne I'm going to count that too.

Whether you know them all really doesn't mean a hell of a lot when it comes to really determining the worlds sporting capital though. The AFL and Aussie rules football in general mightn't mean anything to the rest of the world but the fact is it has the 4th highest average attendance figure of any sport league in the world and 9 of the 16 teams are based in Melbourne. The average attendance per Million population (of the whole country might I add even though 60% of it is in Melbourne) is double that of the next closest in the top 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures

We have a tennis grand slam, F1 race, MotoGP (and SBK) races, major golf tournaments and world renown courses, the spring racing carnival including the Melbourne cup, a local sports league that by far has the biggest per capital attendance in the world and the annual boxing day test match. Those plus a plethora of other one of international events is why if you type Melbourne and sports capital of the world into google you'll find that we've consecutively been named just that for some years now.

Melbourne has world class events, not just a few venues that were famous when every other county in the world had under 2 million people. Bernabeu is probably the most famous soccer stadium anyway.

Indy no longer has an F1 race and it only had it for a few years anyway. Right now, I remember the Detroit GP more than I remember the Indy one.

Melbourne currently has the Phillip Island MotoGP (been running forever), the Albert Park F1 race, the Australian Open tennis tournament and lots of other good stuff. Collingwood comes from Melbourne, and it's the world's greatest sporting club playing the world's greatest sport.

I wouldn't put too much weight on which country has paid the most to host the Olympics. Look at the most recent cities and tell me they're great sporting centres: Atlanta(!), Sydney, Athens(!), Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro(!) Any basket case of a town can get its act together for a one-off. Melbourne uses its 100,000 and 50,000 seat AFL/cricket stadiums, 15,000 and 10,000 seat tennis stadiums, 30,000 seat rugby stadium and probably some other bigass buildings for swimming and basketball. Not too bad for a city of 4 million.

Damn it Dunnas! You posted while I was looking at pictures of AAMI stadium and the MCG and Melbourne Park all in the one shot. It would be handy to get an angle with Albert Park in the background...

Phillip Island gets to count as Melbourne just because it has Melbourne written all over the barriers.

Haha, the irony is that I didn't say anything earlier because after my post saying that no US cities come close I was expecting you to pretty much make my exact post.

Then I saw your post of "Melbourne is quite away in front of anywhere else I can think of. Most countries seem to spread the international events between cities, but we just take all the majors. And they're all placed at either end of the year, because March - September is taken up by the important AFL season." and realised that it was actually going to be all on me to bring up some actual facts. Hopefully you're happy with what I found.

So anyway. Do you take Monday off?

I only have Monday afternoon off to pick up my girlfriend from the airport. There are all sorts of things I said I'd get done over the two weeks she was gone. I now have 48 hours to do them, plus clean up the house thas has been soiled in her absence...

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

Every city in the world has a long list of sports teams based there.

Name me one other city that has as many stadiums and teams that are known throughout the world as London. Noone outside the US has ever heard of half of those teams you mention. Ney York is the only one that has any global appeal, and the Lakers.

Im afraid other than Melbourne Park i couldnt name a single venue in Melbourne. You ask anyone anywhere in the world and they'll known Wembley Stadium.

Maybe if you ask anyone north of France, west of Denmark and south of Iceland, they'll know Wembley stadium right off. But as for everyone else in the world, we would have to look it up just to know what the fuck you're talking about., so your "Widely known stadium count comes to zero.
Everybody knows Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park's Big Green Monster.
and screw F1, nobody in the world doesn't know the Indianapolis 500 (which is The Race I was referring to, and was around long before F1, or race cars, for that matter), regardless of whether or not the sactioning body of the race has Ecclestone money to throw into it.
Truth is we have more sports teams and stadiums in per major city than the UK; more fans, and much more rabid and fanatical about the sports we like.
For example, just look how many people attended the US Open--which, by the way is held in New York--versus Wimbeldon.
That's 721,059 versus 511,043 in 2009. (for some reason, no 2010 attendance record for the US Open shows up anywhere, but the trend was that attendance at both events were growing steadily over the past decade.)
...and we don't even consider Tennis a "major" sport.

And think about just what is more world famous--Baseball, (our) Football, Basketball, or
Cricket and Rugby.

Don't throw soccer in, everybody has soccer. we have soccer.

Swerve wrote:I wouldn't put too much weight on which country has paid the most to host the Olympics. Look at the most recent cities and tell me they're great sporting centres: Atlanta(!), Sydney, Athens(!), Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro(!) Any basket case of a town can get its act together for a one-off.

granted, but I wasn't the one who brought the Olympics into the equation in the first place, as though it were it were the one thing that makes a host city a major sporting center. I mean, who goes to Lake Placid or Salt Lake City for any reason other than Skiing? And who goes to Atlanta for any reason other than to get shot?

Turbojett wrote:

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

Every city in the world has a long list of sports teams based there.

Name me one other city that has as many stadiums and teams that are known throughout the world as London. Noone outside the US has ever heard of half of those teams you mention. Ney York is the only one that has any global appeal, and the Lakers.

Im afraid other than Melbourne Park i couldnt name a single venue in Melbourne. You ask anyone anywhere in the world and they'll known Wembley Stadium.

Maybe if you ask anyone north of France, west of Denmark and south of Iceland, they'll know Wembley stadium right off. But as for everyone else in the world, we would have to look it up just to know what the fuck you're talking about., so your "Widely known stadium count comes to zero.
Everybody knows Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park's Big Green Monster.
and screw F1, nobody in the world doesn't know the Indianapolis 500 (which is The Race I was referring to, and was around long before F1, or race cars, for that matter), regardless of whether or not the sactioning body of the race has Ecclestone money to throw into it.
Truth is we have more sports teams and stadiums in per major city than the UK; more fans, and much more rabid and fanatical about the sports we like.
For example, just look how many people attended the US Open--which, by the way is held in New York--versus Wimbeldon.
That's 721,059 versus 511,043 in 2009. (for some reason, no 2010 attendance record for the US Open shows up anywhere, but the trend was that attendance at both events were growing steadily over the past decade.)
...and we don't even consider Tennis a "major" sport.

And think about just what is more world famous--Baseball, (our) Football, Basketball, or
Cricket and Rugby.

Don't throw soccer in, everybody has soccer. we have soccer.

Let's have a look at the world's most popular sports:

First, by a country mile, soccer. Wembley stadium is the most famous of all national stadiums...not really an argument to be had there.

Second, cricket. Just because it's not big in America, doesnt mean almost all of Asia and the remainder of the Commonwealth dont play it as their main sport. And Lord's ground is its home.

Third, basketball. Aside from the Lakers and the Bulls most of the world couldnt name any other teams, and the only reason they know those is because all the celebrities support the Lakers and Jordan played for the Bulls.

Fourth, baseball. Finally America has a showing. Yankee Stadium being the only one everyone knows because of the marketing power of the Yankees. You're kidding yourself if you think anyone would know the other two you're talking about.

Fifth most popular sport in the world - rugby. Again, just because Americans dont play it doesnt mean noone else does. And Twickenham is it's home.

Sixth - field hockey. Same as above really, although because i hate hockey i couldnt name you a famous hockey stadium anywhere in the world.

We dont consider tennis a major sport either; it's considered a middle-upper class sport. But viewing figures aside, ask any tennis player in the world where he wants to win and they all say Wimbledon.

If you want to get into motorsport then Monaco and Le Mans are easily as famous as the Indy 500, but this is a city comparison, not country, and Indianapolis has nothing else to offer.

Isn't Santiago Bernabeu the most famous soccer stadium? Or maybe Old Trafford thanks to Man U.

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

Pennzoil GT-R wrote:

Turbojett wrote:

dunnas wrote:No US city comes close.

fuck that. LA's hosted the summer Olymics as many times as London (shut it Pennz, it isn't 2012 yet!) and Lake Placid NY had it what twice also? Australia as a whole has had it exactly twice, once in Melbourne, once in Sydney.
as far as the olymics are concerned though, I must retract Chicago. the failed three times. they suck.
but they have The Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, Da Bears...
LA has the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, Lakers, Kings, Ducks, Galaxy (even though the former three suck)
NYC has the Stankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders, and one of the biggest marathons in the world, along with Chicago and Boston.
Indianapolis has The Race.

(but then if you want to talk Europe, Le Mans has THE RACE.)

Every city in the world has a long list of sports teams based there.

Name me one other city that has as many stadiums and teams that are known throughout the world as London. Noone outside the US has ever heard of half of those teams you mention. Ney York is the only one that has any global appeal, and the Lakers.

Im afraid other than Melbourne Park i couldnt name a single venue in Melbourne. You ask anyone anywhere in the world and they'll known Wembley Stadium.

Maybe if you ask anyone north of France, west of Denmark and south of Iceland, they'll know Wembley stadium right off. But as for everyone else in the world, we would have to look it up just to know what the fuck you're talking about., so your "Widely known stadium count comes to zero.
Everybody knows Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park's Big Green Monster.
and screw F1, nobody in the world doesn't know the Indianapolis 500 (which is The Race I was referring to, and was around long before F1, or race cars, for that matter), regardless of whether or not the sactioning body of the race has Ecclestone money to throw into it.
Truth is we have more sports teams and stadiums in per major city than the UK; more fans, and much more rabid and fanatical about the sports we like.
For example, just look how many people attended the US Open--which, by the way is held in New York--versus Wimbeldon.
That's 721,059 versus 511,043 in 2009. (for some reason, no 2010 attendance record for the US Open shows up anywhere, but the trend was that attendance at both events were growing steadily over the past decade.)
...and we don't even consider Tennis a "major" sport.

And think about just what is more world famous--Baseball, (our) Football, Basketball, or
Cricket and Rugby.

Don't throw soccer in, everybody has soccer. we have soccer.

Let's have a look at the world's most popular sports:

First, by a country mile, soccer. Wembley stadium is the most famous of all national stadiums...not really an argument to be had there.

Second, cricket. Just because it's not big in America, doesnt mean almost all of Asia and the remainder of the Commonwealth dont play it as their main sport. And Lord's ground is its home.

Third, basketball. Aside from the Lakers and the Bulls most of the world couldnt name any other teams, and the only reason they know those is because all the celebrities support the Lakers and Jordan played for the Bulls.

Fourth, baseball. Finally America has a showing. Yankee Stadium being the only one everyone knows because of the marketing power of the Yankees. You're kidding yourself if you think anyone would know the other two you're talking about.

Fifth most popular sport in the world - rugby. Again, just because Americans dont play it doesnt mean noone else does. And Twickenham is it's home.

Sixth - field hockey. Same as above really, although because i hate hockey i couldnt name you a famous hockey stadium anywhere in the world.

We dont consider tennis a major sport either; it's considered a middle-upper class sport. But viewing figures aside, ask any tennis player in the world where he wants to win and they all say Wimbledon.

If you want to get into motorsport then Monaco and Le Mans are easily as famous as the Indy 500, but this is a city comparison, not country, and Indianapolis has nothing else to offer.

But I'm willing to bet more people from, say, east asia travel halfway around the world to see Fenway, Wrigley, or Yankee Stadium just to check it off their bucket list, than they do Wembley. There's easily more star power in Yankee Stadium than Wembley--so yes, there' is an argument to be held over that.
And the Red Sox have easily as much clout as the Yankees, and rather if you want to think nobody else in the world knows them just for the sake of winning a pointless argument, then you, rather, are kidding yourself.
honestly, who here, other than you, has ever heard of Wembley stadium? I honestly had to look it up, but then, I'm completely disinterested in soccer. For as popular as it is, it's about as exciting to watch as growing Astro Turf.
and "finally America makes a showing" with Baseball, but Basketball--an American invention--is just above it, and really should be two. Granted Cricket is popular in asia, but Basketball has gained quite a bit of popularity there too, and in...well, Europe as well--so I'd say they were running closer to a tie than you think. Baseball is also taking up quite a bit of popularity in southeast and east asia as well, particularly Japan and Korea, which would explain everybody coming to see Yankee Stad., Fenway and Wrigley as the icons they are.

Swerve wrote:Isn't Santiago Bernabeu the most famous soccer stadium? Or maybe Old Trafford thanks to Man U.

Bernabeu is a club stadium, Wembley is a national stadium.

In that case, I'm adding the Bell's Beach round of the surf tour to Melbourne's list of international events.

The southern states don't care about rugby (league or union), but our new stadium seemed to be the location of the weekend's Australia vs. England game. And Melbourne Storm won the national league in 07 and 09 (although both titles were stripped this year due to salary cap breaches).

So to recap:

F1
MotoGP & SBK
ATP Open
ASP Tour
One of the world's top horse races
This country's best sports teams and stadiums

i'd hope for better than that...

oh and if that was supposed to be an advert for NFL....wtf. i have never seen such a fragmented, dull and lifeless game in my life. Luckily i know not all NFL is like that but jesus

I love how even after all this time I can still count on Pennz to be the same. Good to know somethings never change.

I cast my vote for Melbourne. It runs that half of the globe for sport. Europe has too many draws for sport, and North America is a separate entity sports wise.