Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major professional sports franchises. They include the Red Sox (baseball), the Celtics (basketball, in the state where the sport was invented), and the Bruins (ice hockey). The New England Patriots (American football) and the New England Revolution (soccer, or association football) play at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough, Massachusetts. Boston is one of eleven U.S. cities to have teams from the five major American professional team sports.
Several Boston-area colleges and universities are also active in college athletics including: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard. The city is also home to prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta.
Sports are a major part of the city's culture (as well as the culture of the Greater Boston area). Boston sports fans are known for their fanatical devotion to the Red Sox and knowledge of the team's history. However, in recent memory Boston is now known as an American football town, as the Patriots have long seized the title as the most popular team in New England, according to surveys.[1][2] Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (MLB) and holds a legendary status among baseball fans.[3][4][5] Within the same era, what is now the world's oldest existing indoor multi-sports facility[6] – today's Matthews Arena, primarily used by Northeastern University's college sports teams – first opened in 1910, only 1⁄4-mile (400m) away from the original home field of the Red Sox – and is where on December 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins played their first NHL regular season game.[7]
The Greater Boston region is the only city/surrounding area in American professional sports in which all facilities for men's teams are privately owned and operated. The Patriots and Revolution both own Gillette Stadium, the Red Sox own Fenway Park, and TD Garden is owned by Delaware North, owner of the Bruins. The Celtics rent TD Garden from Delaware North. This is not the case for teams in the most prominent women's leagues—Boston Fleet, the region's representative in the Professional Women's Hockey League, plays at the Tsongas Center, owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the National Women's Soccer League's future BOS Nation FC is set to start play in 2026 in White Stadium, owned by Boston's public school district.
- ^ Shaughnessy, Dan (February 18, 2017). "In Boston, football is glorious but baseball still owns our hearts". Boston Globe Media. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
Yes, we are a football town, but it turns out baseball is not dead.
- ^ Finn, Chad (July 11, 2017). "The Red Sox don't have much time before the Patriots are back to steal the spotlight". Boston Globe Media. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
They've long since seized the title as the most popular team in New England.
- ^ Boswell, John; Fisher, David (1992). Fenway Park: Legendary Home of the Boston Red Sox. Little, Brown. ISBN 9780316103374.
- ^ "Top Ten Baaseball Stadiums". Retrieved April 27, 2015.
- ^ "BaseballStadiums.net / Fenway Park". Retrieved April 27, 2015.
- ^ "Northeastern University Athletics Official Website". Gonu.com. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
- ^ "NHL hockey came to the U.S. on Dec. 1, 1924". National Hockey League. December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
The National Hockey League celebrates another historic anniversary...remembering the first NHL game played in the United States, as the Boston Bruins hosted the Montreal Maroons, both expansion teams, at the Boston Arena on Dec. 1, 1924.