Long Beach, CA

I visited Austin and Tucson earlier this year and was surprised by their size and subsequent lack of professional sports, which hurts their notoriety and familiarity in an otherwise sports-crazed nation.

Meanwhile, Green Bay, Wisconsin—home of the well-known Packers—is the smallest city in America with a pro sports team (just 100,000 residents).

What other large cities might fly under the radar, then, due to a lack of professional sports?

This is what I found—the largest U.S. cities without a pro team:

1. Austin, Texas (1 million people—getting Austin FC in 2021, however)
2. Fort Worth, Texas (800,000)
3. El Paso, Texas (700,000)
4. Las Vegas, Nevada (600,000—getting The Raiders in 2020)
5. Louisville, Kentucky (600,000—although it makes famous professional baseball bats)
6. Albuquerque, New Mexico (550,000)
7. Tucson, Arizona (500,000)
8. Fresno, California (500,000)
9. Long Beach, California (450,000)
10. Mesa, Arizona (450,000)