(07-07-2014 04:13 PM)CardinalJim Wrote: Louisville is the largest city in the country without professional sports
Yes and no.
Louisville’s “city population” is 756,832. That absolutely dwarfs the "city population" of Cincinnati (296,943), Pittsburgh (305,841), St. Louis (318,416), Cleveland (396,815), Minneapolis (400,070), and Miami (419,777). The problem with using city population is that some cities are consolidated city-county while other have separate city and county governments.
If you go by metro population (avoids the issue of city-only vs city/county consolidated), Louisville is only one of several +1 million metro population cities without a Big 4 team (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL).
Las Vegas, NV...............1,951,269
Austin, TX....................1,926,998
Hampton Roads, VA........1,707,369
Louisville, KY.................1,262,261
Richmond, VA................1,231,980
Hartford,CT...................1,212,381
Still I agree with your overall point. Louisville has more of a unique situation given that the school is located in a large metro area with no pro competition.