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CNN Live Saturday
What Is The Number One Sports Town In America?
Aired August 16, 2003 - 18:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: "The Sporting News" is on the stands with its always eagerly awaited selections of top 10 sports cities. In the number one spot this year, drum roll, please, is Los Angeles, Anaheim. It's followed by New York/Long Island/New Jersey, Oakland/San Francisco/San Jose, Philadelphia, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Detroit and Denver.
Bob Hille is the executive director of "The Sporting News," and he joins us now from Triumphant, Anaheim. Welcome.
BOB HILLE, "THE SPORTING NEWS": Hi, Andrea.
KOPPEL: Hi. So how did you come to choose L.A., which doesn't have, for anybody who follows football, its own national football team, as the number one sports city?
HILLE: Well, it started with the Angels last year winning the world championships at the World Series in baseball, finished with the Mighty Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals, and in between you had the University of Southern California, 11-2, with a Heisman trophy winner, and sprinkled among those three big achievements are a lot of very good teams, a lot of fan support for the city's teams, right down into the small college level.
So, I think really the NFL is more hung up on Los Angeles not having an NFL team than Los Angeles is. So it overcame that small hole in our criteria.
KOPPEL: How many years have you been doing this? And is this the first time that L.A. has been selected number one?
HILLE: This is the ninth time we've done it, and this is the first time for Los Angeles/Anaheim. So they take over from Boston, who won it last year. And again, it's a 12-month snapshot that kind of captures fan fervor over the course of a 12-month period.
KOPPEL: Obviously "The Sporting News" is a favorite for sports lovers around the country, but what is it that you hope this list will do? Will it bring folks maybe out to L.A. who wouldn't have gone to see a team, or where do you -- what is the purpose of this?
HILLE: Well, it's a couple of things. One of them is for civic pride, so that the place that ends up number one can be very proud of that. I'll be out in Edison (ph) Field tonight before an Angels game with 40,000 or so of my closest friends to celebrate number one, but also to kind of get the arguments and discussions flowing. We know when we put this list together that there are lots of cities that have rivalries with other cities. They're going to check the list out and see where those two cities fall versus one another, so part of it is, yes, we want people to understand where they fall in the big scheme of things, but also understand, this is all done in great fun and we just want people to enjoy sports for what it is.
KOPPEL: How does L.A. stack up against other cities? You mentioned Boston. In terms of the variety of sports and the fervor and just the excitement that the locals bring to the sport?
Aired August 16, 2003 - 18:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: "The Sporting News" is on the stands with its always eagerly awaited selections of top 10 sports cities. In the number one spot this year, drum roll, please, is Los Angeles, Anaheim. It's followed by New York/Long Island/New Jersey, Oakland/San Francisco/San Jose, Philadelphia, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Detroit and Denver.
Bob Hille is the executive director of "The Sporting News," and he joins us now from Triumphant, Anaheim. Welcome.
BOB HILLE, "THE SPORTING NEWS": Hi, Andrea.
KOPPEL: Hi. So how did you come to choose L.A., which doesn't have, for anybody who follows football, its own national football team, as the number one sports city?
HILLE: Well, it started with the Angels last year winning the world championships at the World Series in baseball, finished with the Mighty Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals, and in between you had the University of Southern California, 11-2, with a Heisman trophy winner, and sprinkled among those three big achievements are a lot of very good teams, a lot of fan support for the city's teams, right down into the small college level.
So, I think really the NFL is more hung up on Los Angeles not having an NFL team than Los Angeles is. So it overcame that small hole in our criteria.
KOPPEL: How many years have you been doing this? And is this the first time that L.A. has been selected number one?
HILLE: This is the ninth time we've done it, and this is the first time for Los Angeles/Anaheim. So they take over from Boston, who won it last year. And again, it's a 12-month snapshot that kind of captures fan fervor over the course of a 12-month period.
KOPPEL: Obviously "The Sporting News" is a favorite for sports lovers around the country, but what is it that you hope this list will do? Will it bring folks maybe out to L.A. who wouldn't have gone to see a team, or where do you -- what is the purpose of this?
HILLE: Well, it's a couple of things. One of them is for civic pride, so that the place that ends up number one can be very proud of that. I'll be out in Edison (ph) Field tonight before an Angels game with 40,000 or so of my closest friends to celebrate number one, but also to kind of get the arguments and discussions flowing. We know when we put this list together that there are lots of cities that have rivalries with other cities. They're going to check the list out and see where those two cities fall versus one another, so part of it is, yes, we want people to understand where they fall in the big scheme of things, but also understand, this is all done in great fun and we just want people to enjoy sports for what it is.
KOPPEL: How does L.A. stack up against other cities? You mentioned Boston. In terms of the variety of sports and the fervor and just the excitement that the locals bring to the sport?
