Two things -
You can't be a "real", competitive city without sports teams, it lends personality, exposure and gravitas to cities that would otherwise have none.
But sports teams do not an "it" city make. For that, you need economy, natural beauty/aesthetics and culture.
Take Cleveland for example. Plenty of sports teams. Not an "it" city, but has way more exposure than, say, Wichita, which has no pro sports teams.
This exactly.
Having a pro sports team does a lot to ensure people think about your city on a daily basis. If your city wins a pro sports trophy, you get instant credibility you wouldn't otherwise get if you hosted the winning of say, a music award.
Really sports provide a level playing field for cities to compete with each other in a consistent and credible way (other than meaningless statistics on crime and such which can be very ambiguous).
No offence, but to most of the posters on here arguing the opposite, I wouldn't know nor give a **** about your place of residence if it wasn't for your sports team....I assume the same goes back at me from you as I come from Ottawa.
How many of you legitimately think about Ottawa except in relation to the Sens?
Let's put this in an easier perspective:
I live in London UK now and most of the Europeans I encounter ONLY know North American cities for their sports teams.
Many Europeans have never heard of Ottawa; the number of blank stares I get when I say where I'm from is absolutely incredible considering Ottawa is the capital city of a G-8 country. Most people just assume Toronto is the capital. But everyone knows St. Louis, everyone knows Green Bay, everyone knows San Diego, everyone knows Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Denver etc... And they connect them with the teams. "St. Louis! their team won the world series right???" "Denver....do you like the Broncos?" "San Diego Chargers".
Pro sports = international exposure at a level most cities (outside the obvious ones like New York, LA, and Las Vegas) would never get WITHOUT a pro sports team.
No one globally is going to care about a city famous for their public transit.