Comments on: Wow. Clueless.

By: BD

BD — Tue, 23 May 2006 15:05:38 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. My apathy towards hockey has been exposed!

By: lexalexander

lexalexander — Tue, 23 May 2006 15:05:32 +0000

I’m with you, O-Dub. Writing about Washington as sports town w/o mentioning the Redskins is sort of writing about sports in N.C. w/o mentioning college basketball or NASCAR.

By: BD

BD — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:05:50 +0000

Steve – How does the Kings selling out vindicate LA as a sports town? Aren’t the Kings from Sacramento?

By: Cyrus the Virus

Cyrus the Virus — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:05:25 +0000

Oh, and Dana, Philly does support all four teams, but you can’t deny it’s the Eagles and everyone else.

I was at the Phillies game this past Friday night, and there were at least as many Red Sox fans as their were Phillies fans.

And had the Sixers been a five seed in the playoffs, i don’t know that there would’ve been a ton of interest. The team isn’t going anywhere.

On BOTH sports-talk stations, the Eagles draft got more discussion than the Phillies and Flyers (who happened ot be in the playoffs at the time) combined.

One thing i will say, though, is that Philly is a much bigger college basketball town than pro. The Palestra remains the greatest college hoops venue on the face of the earth.

By: Cyrus the Virus

Cyrus the Virus — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:05:01 +0000

BD,

I think he’s referring to the LA Kings of the NHL.

And I’m not sure what Sullivan’s point is. Does losing in the first round really count as a “run” in the playoffs?

It was a good series and every game was close, but still. They zero chance of making any noise past the second round, had they made it that far.

And the whole “great sports town” thing is overrated anyway. Philly is considered a great sports town as far as fan interest and passion go, but that doesn’t change the fact that we haven’t won a championship in anything since 1983 (professional anyway. 1985 if you count Villanova.)

Even racehorses from Philly are jinxed.

By: Anna in Cairo

Anna in Cairo — Tue, 23 May 2006 08:05:13 +0000

There’s also college BBall. When I was at Georgetown the students were not the only rabid fans of the Hoyas. A lot of regular Washingtonians were too.

By: Steve Smith

Steve Smith — Tue, 23 May 2006 02:05:09 +0000

Concerning the Luxury Box as the raison d’etre of pro football, there are so few games that the payment for the box has a disproportionate impact on team revenues. D.C., being a town where the only true business is lobbying, is a perfect spot for pro football, since the luxury box is the perfect corporate perk.

Concerning L.A., the notion that fans don’t support a team if they’re not winning has been thoroughly discredited just by the fact that the Clippers and Kings have sold out most of their games for the past decade. The Dodgers have been awful since 1988, and have drawn at least 3 and a half mill every season, and the Lakers have led the league in attendance the past two years in spite of the team’s mediocrity.

By: SaveFarris

SaveFarris — Tue, 23 May 2006 01:05:43 +0000

I think a better measure of how “good” a sports town is by looking at how well they support the team when said team is terrible. It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon of a winner. It’s another to fly team colors when they’re chasing a 10th straight losing season.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Tue, 23 May 2006 01:05:42 +0000

Agreed, which is an area where I think DC and especially Boston and Chicago excel and where LA and Miami suck, hard.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:47 +0000

Actually, I happen to like Tony Kornheiser and Thomas Boswell. But then you’re gonna tell me someone like Mike Lupica is the be-all and end-all. The Redskins have been through a 15 year slump, still popular. I’m not saying that DC is The Greatest Sports Town In America, but to say we’re not a sports town at all – Sullivan’s thesis – is braindead.

And we make up for the dearth of sports shows in the offseason by having about 7 Redskins shows during the season

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:36 +0000

Most “good sports towns” are dedicated to one team above all others. And football is surely a big money sport, but so is every other sport – you think baseball, basketball, and hockey don’t count on luxury seating? I’m not going to argue about the team name, I’m tired of it.

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:25 +0000

Heck, y’all couldn’t even hang on to the Washington Senators, and the best you could do is the cast-off Montreal Expos.

Philadelphia seems to do pretty well in supporting the Phillies, the Eagles, the Seventy-Sixers and the Flyers. And New York manages to support two Major League Baseball teams, two NFL teams, two NBA teams and three NHL teams. Maybe when you were thinking that “Most ‘good sports towns’ are dedicated to one team above all others,” you were somewhat influenced by the fact that most good sports towns only have one good team. (Think Denver here.)

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:22 +0000

I don't like Wilbon and he isn't the best sports writer in DC (He's a Chicago guy who hates the DC teams. I like his personality but not his column). Kornheiser is a humorist and is better, as is Boswell. Sally Jenkins is an abomination. (FYI it's now Verizon -- not MCI -- Center. Heheh.)

By: Jadegold

Jadegold — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:18 +0000

Tony Kornheiser used to write for the Style section in NY and Wilbon is probably the best of a bad lot. They’re both personalities as opposed to sports writers.

No, Lupica isn’t much good—and neither are a lot of the folks who appear on ESPN.

By: Jadegold

Jadegold — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:17 +0000

Sure they have a pecking order–usually the team that’s doing best at the time.

Look if you go a NY Rangers game at MSG, it’s best you’re not wearing another team’s jersey unless you’re looking for trouble. The fact is that even when the Rangers go through one of their decades-long slumps–they still are popular. Go to a Caps game and most of the lower bowl of MCI is empty.

In a good sports town, you can pick up the sports page–at any time of the year—and there’ll be full coverage of whatever team(s) are playing. There’ll be opinion and analyses. There will be TV and radio shows.

That only happens at one time during the year in DC.

As a result, you don’t get good sports reporters in DC because there’s only one game in town.

By: Jadegold

Jadegold — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:15 +0000

Most good sports towns are dedicated to one team above all others.

To the contrary, a “good sports town” is dedicated to most all of its teams.

Good sports towns are Chicago, Boston, New York, LA–even Denver’s not bad with the exception that they don’t really support the Rockies.

DC is a horrible, horrible sports town.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:05:10 +0000

Now Miami and LA – there’s your bad sports towns.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Mon, 22 May 2006 23:05:48 +0000

In Southern Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach) the fans are also bandwaggoners of the worst sort.

By: Steve Smith

Steve Smith — Mon, 22 May 2006 23:05:42 +0000

I dunno, fanatical interest in one team does not a good sports town make, particularly since the team plays a sport that’s little more than a front for selling luxory boxes. BTW, what’s with the scummy racist nickname for your team?

By: garth

garth — Mon, 22 May 2006 23:05:28 +0000

if she wants to see some fan lethargy, come out here to san diego. i’ve been a chargers fan since childhood and i’m ready to just let them go to hell. the Spanos family has turned it slowly into a money-extraction device, with the city gov. just bending to their will. Donna Frye said “you know what, go to hell.”

and they are. and i can’t wait to see the door hit ‘em on the ass on the way out, frankly. too long on the public teat for no production, no return. screw ‘em.

whew. sorry. got a little off-topic