In This Space, we have often referred to Southern California as the most diverse (and occasionally most fickle) sports market on this continent.
We have two of most every team in every major team sport. We have two major conference college programs operating cheek-to-jowl with major league franchises. We get cameo appearances from almost all of the itinerant sports circuits, starting with this Sunday’s NASCAR Clash in the Coliseum (although it would be nice if the tennis tours would again land in the nation’s second-largest market in the summertime, rather than merely touching down in Indian Wells in March).
Also, dare I point out, we will have our third Olympic Games four years from now. Before that, if FIFA and Stan Kroenke could mend fences, SoFi Stadium would be hosting World Cup matches in two years (and maybe some of the expanded Club World Cup next summer).
And I don’t even have to mention the cornucopia of prime-time athletes that this region continues to pump out annually. You name the sport and we’re represented.
So let’s go big. SoCal is not only the preeminent sports community in North America, but I’ll make the case that it’s unmatched on this planet. The phrase “Sports Capital of the World” sounds way too boosterish, but doesn’t it fit?
What other city on earth has the multitude of sports attractions – i.e., competition for attention – that we do? For example, in most countries, the sport we know as soccer is considered King Football. Here, it has to fight for market share and for attention with four other major professional sports. And there are good reasons Major League Soccer avoids the fall-winter-spring scheduling cycle observed by the rest of the world, the most important being the NFL behemoth, i.e. our very own King Football.
Meanwhile, what other metropolitan area on this continent can match the sports chops of this sprawling community made up of L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties?
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