Denver is the best sports city in the nation and it’s not particularly close. I’ve been a fan of Denver sports my whole life, and I’m appalled when I see the national media not give this city the flowers it deserves.
I will acknowledge that the market of Denver will never be able to compete with teams from Los Angeles, New York, Boston or Dallas, which is likely why it slips the mind of fans and media members across the country. If they came here and experienced the culture, they would see that no city does it better.
The first thing that needs to be mentioned is representation in every major sports league in the nation. Whether you are a fan of football, baseball, basketball, hockey, or soccer, Denver is the place you want to be.
Regardless of your sports preference, the Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets, Avalanche and Rapids represent all of them.
In women’s sports, Denver broke into the market of women’s sports with the Denver Summit playing their inaugural season for the NWSL in 2026.
The Mile High City does not yet own a PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) or WNBA team, but they are making a strong push for one.
According to the Daily Faceoff, the PWHL’s second trip to Denver this year and third in the league’s history proves that one of the favorites for league expansion is the Mile High City.
Current success also needs to be mentioned when talking about Denver sports. Throughout the 2025-2026 season, Denver sports hold a combined record of 138-66-16, which includes an AFC Championship appearance for the Broncos, a 9th consecutive playoff berth for the Avalanche and an 8th consecutive playoff berth for the Nuggets.
We have also seen each of these teams hoist the championship trophies of their respective sports within the last 10 years; The Broncos winning the Lombardi trophy in 2016, The Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, and the Nuggets winning the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2023.
This is success that few cities can replicate and separates Denver into the upper echelons of the sporting world, but what ultimately separates Denver from every other sports city is the culture and fan environment.
In 2017 the Colorado Avalanche finished with one of the worst records in NHL history at 22-56-4. In that same year the Broncos began their 10-season long playoff drought that ended in 2025. And perhaps the most painful experience of them all was watching my beloved Rockies finish with the 7th worst season in MLB’s modern era going a horrific 43-119 in 2025.
What separates these experiences from anywhere else is that the great fans of this city did not give up on their teams in those times.
What I really want to focus on is that horrific 2025 season for the Rockies. With baseball being such a bipolar sport, even some of the top teams in the league struggle to fill out their stadium year after year.
Even in a season where there was truly no reason to attend a Rockies game, I showed up to games on Saturday nights in mid-July where the stadium was as full as I had ever seen it; they still show up and wholeheartedly support their teams.
In fact, even with a 10-season long playoff drought, the Broncos currently hold the longest sellout streak in the NFL with every ticket being sold out since Week 1 of the 1970 season when the team played at Mile High Stadium.
I remember being at Empower Field for a meaningless week 10 game against the Eagles in 2021 when Teddy Bridgewater was at the helm for the Broncos and there were still 76,000 faithful chanting “in-com-plete” when Jalen Hurts threw a meatball sub across the middle of the field.
After their game against the Houston Astros on April 6, 2026, Rockies right fielder Troy Johnston said, “When I walk around Miami, I never saw a Miami Marlins jersey. I never saw a Miami Marlins hat. I saw nothing of the sort. When I’m walking around downtown Denver, they are really excited about the Rockies. They want the Rockies to be good. This is a sports town…I have never seen so many supporters of one team that I’ve actually been a part of, that I’ve been on. This city and this team wants to win.”
If this is the case for the Rockies, who are by far the worst team in Colorado currently, you can imagine what it looks like for the Nuggets, Broncos, and Avalanche.
I was there when the Nuggets completed the sweep against the Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Final to send themselves to the NBA Finals and it was absolute pandemonium.
McGregor’s Square was packed to the brim with Nuggets fans showering each other in beer chanting, “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!”
The streets of Denver flooded until morning with fans celebrating the franchise’s first ring when they closed out the series against the Miami Heat just two weeks later.
I know it’s not rare to see fans raid the streets after a championship win, but it just shows how much the fans wanted to see their team reach the summit.
I know that no team in Denver will ever be able to capture as big of a market as some of the bigger cities in the US, but when it comes to the culture and just how much sports means to this city, no one does it better than the mile high city.
Denver Sports. Graphic courtesy of Twitter.