In Baltimore I think people care more about the Orioles than they do the Ravens, though they’ve warmed up to the Ravens over time. Losing the Colts years ago really stung and folks were somewhat unwilling to accept the Ravens as a substitute.
However, I’m an out-of-town observer, a baseball fan but not a football fan, so I may be wrong about where Baltimorean passions lie.
Detroit might have been a stronger baseball town 40 years ago. Most of my family were much more interested with the Tigers than anything else. After Barry Sanders, football has always been the main topic of discussion even when the Lions were really bad. I would rank overall for when all 4 are bad (like the last decade).
Lions
Red Wings
Tigers
Pistons
College sports have a strong following as well between Michigan State and University of Michigan with football, basketball, hockey. I might even put UofM football above the Tigers in the list above.
They’re the only sports team whose perennial loserdom inspired a hit Broadway musical.
Seahawks are definitely bigger these days. I’d attribute that to their successes in the Russel Wilson / Marshawn Lynch era and their two Super Bowl showings.
I assumed that the Cards were always the dominant team, but the Browns were #1 early on. But according to Wiki, the Browns set their attendance record in 1922. Beginning in 1926, the Cards became the favorite and stayed that way until the Browns left in 1953. With the exception, as you noted, of the 1944 World Series. 1944 and 1945 were the only two seasons after 1922 that the Browns did not have the worst attendance in the American League.
This is correct and I don’t really think it’s that debatable.
The Bears are the entire city’s team, it’s the only team that can really claim that. And we’re all unified by our hatred of the Packers.
The Cubs are a north side team, and some might say the upper-class team. The Sox are the south side team, and the blue-collar team.
The Bulls are the black people’s team, the Blackhawks are the white people’s team.
These are clearly broad generalizations and plenty of cross pollination occurs. Neither the Cubs, Sox, Bulls or Hawks would openly acknowledge that they are demographically, culturally, or economically affiliated, but this is mostly the way it shakes out.
I do think I’d include Notre Dame Football as a Chicago team in spite of its location. This has tapered off a little in recent years as CFB has gotten less regional in nature, but there’s still a ton of people in Chicago, especially the south side, who were basically born into their Golden Domer fandom as a birthright. I would argue that Indiana doesn’t claim them at all because they are a Chicago team. There was a time where DePaul basketball was an easy pick for Chicago’s college basketball team but that’s been dead and gone for decades now. Illinois basketball is the heir apparent, but the reality is that CBB fandom has become pretty fragmented over the years. Any of the original B1G football or basketball programs would overshadow teams like the Fire, Sky and Red Stars in popularity, even the dregs like Indiana Football and Northwestern Basketball.
I lived in Texas for a few years a while ago and I would put high school football above all of other sports. Maybe it’s different now.
I considered mentioning Notre Dame in my list, for exactly that reason. ND has historically had a strong following among Catholic football fans, in general, and Chicago certainly has many of those, especially those of Irish, Italian, and Polish heritage. Plus, South Bend is only two hours away, even closer than Champaign/Urbana (home of the University of Illinois).
This is a good point, as well; Chicago has a lot of people who live and work here, who attended Big Ten schools in other states – either they were originally from Chicago, went to college out of state, and then “came back home,” or they (like me) were from a nearby state, went to college in their home state, and then moved to Chicago for work. I’ve worked with a ton of Michigan and Michigan State alumni/fans during my career.
I think I’d refine that ever so slightly. Notre Dame fandom historically has been Catholics + Chicagoans (the outer join, not the inner join). There are fans who are both, but Notre Dame’s national prominence is due to its pull of Catholics everywhere and its local draw is Chicagoans, especially south siders, of all stripes. Them pulling from 2 big pools has a lot to do with why they are so much bigger than any one B1G program, even successful ones like Michigan and OSU.
I cannot disagree with this analysis. 
If we included ND I think I’d slot them in between the Blackhawks and sad sack Sox.
Sounds about right. If we went back 10 or 15 years, ND might well have been above the Blackhawks, too.
This is mostly true. Until the 1950 season most Philadelphians were A’s fans. Then the Phillies won the 1950 NL pennant. True they needed some heroics on the last game of the season and were swept by Yanks in the series, but for most of us our allegiance switched to the Phils and four years later the A’s were in KC. The Eagles were a some time phenomenon and Warriors were not much till Wilt came along and even then they sometimes played “home” games elsewhere. In particular, the 100 point game was played in a phone booth HS gym in Hershey, PA before probably less than 10,000 people.
The Broad St. Bullies were not the best hockey team ever. The Canadiens of 1970-79 probably were. And Montreal is still a hockey town. They have a CFL team and MLS team, but these are only minor.
Incidentally, today’s Times had a photo of dejected A’s fans leaving the Oakland Coliseum for the last time. The caption said that and added the A’s had played there since 1968 after stops in Philly and KC. Of course, it wasn’t a stop in Philly; they started there. I was startled to realize that A’s had played longer (57 seasons) that Philly (53 seasons).
I would agree that your take is golden for Chicago. I have no qualms.
When I lived in Chicago back in the 90s I recall meeting a few people who did not attend Notre Dame, did not have any family members who attended Notre Dame, had lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago their entire lives, and were diehard fans of Notre Dame football. It seemed strange to me.
Yeah, it’s pretty obnoxious if you ask me. You can tune in on any local TV news program sometime in May, about as far from the end and beginning of the pro football seasons as you can get, and there’ll always be a Cowboys story of some kind, and as often as not, it’ll lead the sports coverage.
When I lived in Houston, the Oilers were the pre-eminent team, but the Rockets were not far behind, with the Astros in distant third place. Now I’m not sure… the Rockets and Astros have been better on average for the past couple of decades than the Texans have been.
Another thing to consider is that college football is big in Texas in general, and UT/A&M football is a big thing in both cities as well.
I was gonna argue that the Wings should be ranked up top, but after some thought, I think you’re right. People will still watch and talk about the Lions, even when they suck (which, let’s face it, has been for most of everyone’s lifetime). When the other teams suck, interest goes down. The Pistons need to actually be in the playoffs for the general public to care. Despite the “Hockeytown” designation, only die-hards continue following the Wings through it all.
I might actually move the Tigers above the Wings in your list.
The Toronto Maple Leafs certainly sell out all the time, but the Toronto Blue Jays definitely attract more fans nationwide.
That might be true but the TOWN is a hockey town. As are all the other Canadian cities where the Blue Jays are popular. The Jays are the most popular MLB team in Calgary, but it’s a hockey city.