Greatest City Rivalries? How do they start? Why do they continue?

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by ThePhun1

London and Paris? London and New York? Tokyo and Hong Kong? Mumbai and Delhi?

I think the rivalry thing gets more complicated across countries and cultures. For London and Paris, for instance, they might compete over monuments or companies but Paris will always be the capital of the French people and London that of the English. They have something that cannot be withdrawn, which is not the case with, say, Toronto and Vancouver or Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I live in a small capital that pales next to the Londons and Berlins of the world. It's population is much smaller, its buildings are more humble, and it will never close the gap. But Copenhagen is the ancient home of the Danish people. It is where the Danes store their history and culture. It could be reduced down to the old walled town and never lose this.

I think there is a contemporary tendency to lose sight of these particulars and instead favour "objective" comparisons of scale.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by TallCoolOne

Ok, this is mostly just a sports rivalry list, but for Philly teams/fans:

Team -- Biggest Rivals (in order, debatable - and can change over time):

Eagles -- Dallas Cowgirls, NY Giants, Washington.
Phillies -- NY Mets, (Phils-Washington Nats could be good, but the two teams haven't been good at the same time, same thing can be said for Phillies-Atlanta).
Flyers -- Pittsburgh Pens (currently), but historically, NY Rangers, NJ Devils in the 90s-early 2000s was #1, and NY Islanders in the late 70s-80s. Also, Flyers-Washington Caps was been a very healthy rivalry since the 80s.
76ers -- historically Boston Celtics #1 (and 76ers fans always hate the Lakers). Lets hope the Sixers-Celts rivalry will reemerge. #trusttheprocess

Don't forget the biggest brawl in NHL history, affectionately remembered as Friday Night at the Fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5a999-rqA

[JManc]

Originally Posted by UpstateAce

New York and Philadelphia have a bigger rivalry than New York and Boston.

Yankees-Red Sox had publicity in the early 2000s. It was a great heated rivalry, that has since died (and there are countless articles online talking about it over the years). I laugh when ESPN tries their hardest to prop it up again though. Yankees-Red Sox? ZZZZZzzzz. Try a real rivalry (football or hockey).

Only other New York and Boston rival is the Jets and Patriots, which is completely lopsided. Rangers and Bruins don't have a rivalry (source: am a Ranger fan) and Celtics and Knicks do somewhat, but the Knicks are awful so that's been dormant.

New York and Philadelphia on the other hand? Nasty and historic. I'm a hockey fan from Utica, NY. I absolutely despised the Flyers growing up. Enemy #1 on my list. They're still my most hated team and probably our first or second worst rival (Devils I would say are first, and the Islanders have been irrelevant for decades so I don't really care about them).

Giants and Eagles have had an NFC rivalry for almost 100 years. That's probably the best rivalry in the NFL. Phillies and Mets was nasty for a while and still is, and if the Knicks ever get relevant again, they have a rivalry with the Sixers.

Philadelphia's rivalries with New York are much better than the Boston ones. I laugh when people think Boston is the rival. Not to me. Boston wasn't on my sports radar growing up a Ranger fan. Mostly cause the Bruins just sucked when I started following hockey in 1996. They didn't become relevant until the last five years.

Go Comets!

Btw, Robert Esche played for the Flyers briefly.

[ColDayMan]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Cincinnati versus Ohio. The Tri-State area either despises the rest of Ohio or doesn't even know it exists depending on who you talk to. There's been some attempts to drum up competition between the Reds and Indians (the Indians dominate the "Ohio Cup") and the Bengals and Browns (which is just stupid considering how historically awful the two franchises have been since the 1990s). Cincinnati also has Quixotic sports rivalries with Pittsburgh (the Steelers routinely find new and unusual ways to humiliate the Bengals) and with St. Louis (the Cardinals routinely find new and unusual ways to humiliate the Reds).

Generally, agreed. Cincinnati doesn't hate nor have a "rivalry" with Cleveland; it hates Ohio. Ohio, as I've mentioned countless times on this forum, is really 5 states (Cincinnati's Tri-State; Miami Valley; Central & SE Ohio [aka Columbus + Appalachia]; Northwest Ohio; and Northeast Ohio) and all are self-sustaining, provincial regions that don't really acknowledge each other. Sports-wise, agreed that the Steelers and Cardinals are Cincinnatians primary "rivals" but it's far more internal with UC vs. Xavier, etc.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by muppet

London- Paris

Shanghai - Hong Kong

Beijing - Shanghai

Tokyo - Seoul

Melbourne - Sydney

Barcelona - Madrid

Dubai - Abu Dhabi

Rio - Sao Paulo

LA - San Francisco

Moscow - St Petersburg

Karachi - Lahore

Kolkata - Dhaka

Yeah, Melbourne-Sydney is a big rivalry. Aren't they about tied now in population & economic size? In terms of skyline height & number relevant to this forum, Melbourne might have caught Sydney and even passed it. But Sydney harbor....beautiful. All those inlets. But very scary funnel web spiders for arachniphobes.

[Shawn]

I think two factors drive city rivalries: sports and proximity, whether physical or economic.

For sports, Boston-Montreal is a pretty big deal in both places, probably a top 3 NHL rivalry. Much bigger for New Englanders than any other hockey rivalry outside of Beanpot / Hockey East territory. Yankees-Sox is real - and fun again this year! - but the intensity isn't the same as it was 1995-2005 or so. The C's only real rival is LA, whether either team is good or not. And obviously the Pats have no rivals, just jealous fan bases and Roger Fucking Goodell.

Philly and Boston I guess should be rivals, but because there's almost no sports overlap (the Sixers and C's are the only teams in the same division), and because there's not a lot of competitive overlap in proximity of either type, there's no real rivalry to speak of.

[muppet]

A blog series on the 'world's greatest city' rivalry:

https://supermouse.blog/2016/06/06/w...greatest-city/

[tech12]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

LA-SF.

In my experience LA-SF isn't much of a real rivalry, except for baseball, and among a relatively small amount of elitists who think one or the other is the best shit ever and looks down upon the other.

[maru2501]

20 years ago maybe chicago looked at nyc as a rival, but that time has passed

nyc has become its own thing, and really so has chicago. it stopped caring and trying to outpace new york and decided to be a giant boutique city more in line with a SF except with, you know, 700 murders a year. And in return I think it has NY's respect moreso now than ever probably, and vice versa

now it just has the fun sports rivalries. screw you, STL

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by bobdreamz

I've never heard of a Miami vs. Tampa rivalry. In fact Miami vs. any other Florida city is really non existent since it's almost double the size of any other metro in the state.
Maybe Miami vs. Atlanta ?

I would say DC and Dallas are more so rivals to Atlanta than Miami.

[ssiguy]

Montreal & Toronto have always had a fierce rivalry always making comparisons with each other whether it be in transit, roads, shopping, restaurants, hockey, things to do etc. The rivalry was once more of a Toronto thing as Montreal was bigger, nicer, more beautiful, and had all the shopping, restaurants, and nightlife but now Toronto is much larger and the battle between the two is close in most spheres.

What makes the Montreal/Toronto rivalry quite unique is that it is in the same country but a rivalry of 2 cities with different languages and culture with the classic English/French battle.

[ThePhun1]

This thread won't be locked in jiffy. It's not city vs. city at all.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by Shawn

I think two factors drive city rivalries: sports and proximity, whether physical or economic.

Yeah I agree. I'll add another dynamic: A long history. Newer cities don't have intense rivalries because they haven't had enough time to establish controversies with each other.

[sterlippo1]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Are we talking sports rivals only? Boston is not a NYC rival except for Red Sox-Yankees (and maybe Jets-Pats a bit, but you can't have a real rivalry when one team sucks).

Boston, to New Yorkers, is a nice nearby city that people like visiting and sending their kids to university. New Yorkers very much like Boston.

.

mostly true but Boston parents sending their kids to NYC to go to school? The opposite is much more true. BC,BU, Northeastern and others are over run with kids from the tri-state area.

[chris08876]

I think city rivalries are a good thing WHEN it results in fierce economic competition. This allows for newer developments, initiatives that are pushed that result in the economic vitality of "X" city, and the people benefit from it. An example from the global business perspective are cities like London/NY or Tokyo/Shanghai. Competition can be a good thing.

[mousquet]

The most epic, most historic and funniest would definitely be London vs Paris.
It started from William the Conqueror 1000 years ago, from the time when the English monarchy began to regard France's territories as their own.
It used to be seriously ugly and violent for the past centuries, but nowadays the rivalry's mostly 'cordial', as they say.
It is mostly some fun and entertainment here, but somehow, we French are easier than the Brits anyway. Ha!

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by mousquet

The most epic, most historic and funniest would definitely be London vs Paris.
It started from William the Conqueror 1000 years ago, from the time when the English monarchy began to regard France's territories as their own.
It used to be seriously ugly and violent for the past centuries, but nowadays the rivalry's mostly 'cordial', as they say.
It is mostly some fun and entertainment here, but somehow, we French are easier than the Brits anyway. Ha!

I thought ol' Willy was from Normandy?

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by ThePhun1

I thought ol' Willy was from Normandy?

Sure he was. He was the local Duke. He himself was some descending offshoot of the Scandinavian (Viking) conquerors that came down to current France. And these guys weren't as brutal as some stereotype portrays them. In real life and history, they would've been great, historic traders with a good sense of business.

So, William pledged allegiance to the medieval Frank king of his time that was based over Paris or somewhere not far away. I forget the name. Maybe some Louis no matter the number. William was surely a funky dude to rule Normandy at his time. Someday, he got pissed at the English nobility for whatever reason of minor importance, then he successfully invaded their island. I guess he just wanted to expand his mighty duchy and influence. Then he established his own nobility out there in England.

Later on, the English offshoot of William decided they were the actual owners of France, since their ancestor William was a subject of his contemporary Frank king.
And that's how the whole French/English family rivalry got started.

I'm summarizing here, but that's just about how the bloody story began. It painfully lasted up to the colonization of the Americas. Ask the Acadians and Cajuns about the merciless French vs English rivalry, they surely know a whole lot more about it than I do.

[Centropolis]

i'm very pro cincinnati vs st. louis, even though i really really like cincinnati. it's a rivalry that sort of withered on the vine, sadly enough, i guess after the decline of river based commerce and transportation. the geography between st. louis and cincinnati is sort of disruptive, you go through kentucky or indianapolis and it's not a straight shot overland, really, at least not like st. louis to chicago, of which you could roll a ball bearing each direction.

[Steely Dan]

^ I wonder if having two entire large seperate states that can often be universes unto themselves (IL & IN) dilutes the cincy vs. STL thing.

Part of the reason that chicago vs. STL works so well is that it's also strengthened by IL vs. MO, but I'm not aware of any larger OH vs. MO thing.