10 IL Cities Ranked Among Best Sports Towns In The Country

Ten cities in Illinois landed top spots in a new study that ranked the nation's best sports towns.

A WalletHub study compared 399 cities across more than 50 key metrics related to the five largest sports in the nation: football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey.

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The ranking listed Chicago as the No. 18 best large city for sports, while Carbondale and Champaign came in 48th and 52nd place for best small town.

This is how Illinois cities ranked on the overall list:

• Chicago — 18th place
• Carbondale — 114th place
• Champaign — 119th place
• Normal — 134th place
• Charleston — 139th place
• DeKalb — 145th place
• Macomb — 223th place
• Evanston — 236th place
• Peoria — 269th place
• Edwardsville — 280th place

Nationwide, the top five best sports cities were Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

"Sports can cause rivalries between cities, but can also give people a deep appreciation for places other than their hometown," WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo said.

Chicago is just one of a handful of sports cities across the nation that features teams from the country's biggest four professional sports leagues: NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA. The city also features a WNBA team, a pro soccer team and a pro rugby team.

The study placed Chicago as the No. 6 town for baseball (though the city is considered the 22nd worst-performing for MLB teams), No. 12 for basketball, No. 15 for hockey, No. 24 for soccer and No. 31 for football.