New York City can thank the Knicks, in part, for its rise to be this year’s No. 1 sports city in the world as ranked by the consulting firm Burson.
New York moved up two spots in part between the fanaticism of Knicks fans as they won their first title since the 1970s as well as the international prestige that comes with hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup championship match in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey. Paris moved down one spot to No. 2 after having been ranked atop the list for the past three years, followed by Los Angeles (down one spot), London in fourth and Madrid in fifth.
Barcelona, Milan, Lausanne, Munich and Manchester rounded out the top 10 in the list. In my opinion, Lausanne is overrated on the list and is high up only because it is the home of so many international federations — but not the number of sporting events that the other cities in the list would have.
