London named world’s top sports city ahead of LA and Paris

In the 2019 ranking compiled by communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) Sports, Olympic hosts cities dominate the top five.

The UK capital, the 2012 Olympic Games host city, finished top in this year’s report ahead of Los Angeles (2028 hosts), Paris (2024), Tokyo (2020) and Lausanne, the Olympic capital.

In its list of the top 50 sports cities from around the world BCW says the ranking “focuses primarily on the viewpoints of international federations and sports media, combined with an in-depth analysis of the strength of the association between sport and a city in the digital environment”.

London also topped the ranking in 2017 and 2018, while this year Manchester moved into tenth place from 35th in 2018 and Glasgow was 16th, up from 21st last year.

Lars Haue-Pedersen, managing director of BCW Sports, said: “It is interesting to see that the Olympic rings remain the most powerful brand with which cities can be associated, despite the various challenges facing the international sporting world.

“However, we can see from the results of our analysis of the digital environment that cities that are home to an internationally renowned football club, such as Manchester United or Real Madrid, are strongly associated with sport.”

2019 ranking of sports cities: the top ten