What are Ohio’s best sports cities? Dayton, Cincinnati make the list

Dragons center field Jose Siri waits on a pitch during a game against Great Lakes on Wednesday at Fifth Third Field. Contributed Photo by Bryant Billing

Dragons center field Jose Siri waits on a pitch during a game against Great Lakes on Wednesday at Fifth Third Field. Contributed Photo by Bryant Billing

Ohio is home to 14 of the country’s best sports cities, a new ranking shows.

For the list, cities were broken down into three categories, including large, midsize and small. Personal finance website WalletHub then ranked cities in each category, and Cincinnati and Dayton fared the best.

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The two southwestern Ohio cities were placed in the midsize category. Cincinnati was ranked the No. 2 nationally in midsize sports city while Dayton came in at No. 11, ahead of places like South Bend, Ind., and Gainesville, Fla., which are home to the University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida.

WalletHub ranked cities based on the teams they have, according to an explanation of methodology. Football teams were given the biggest weight in the list calculations with basketball receiving the second most weight and baseball teams having the third biggest influence in the ranking.

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Several Ohio cities made one of the list’s three categories.

Best big sports cities

13. Cleveland

32. Columbus

Best midsize sports cities

2. Cincinnati

11. Dayton

19. Toledo

40. Akron

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Best small sports cities

12. Bowling Green

14. Athens

15. Oxford

60. Kent

76. Youngstown

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