Best cities for sports in Iowa

BookrGo Best Sport Cities ranking: we rank the cities of Iowa by their 0-10 sports score, which combines density of centers per resident, variety of sports, listing quality and real activity. To keep the comparison fair, we measure every city's offering with the same sources of national coverage. An honest way to see where it's easiest (and hardest) to find somewhere to play.

244 scorable cities in Iowa.

#	City	Score /10	Centers
1	Decorah	8.4	42
2	Bettendorf	8.1	118
3	Iowa City	7.9	171
4	Urbandale	7.9	170
5	Dubuque	7.9	153
6	Fort Dodge	7.9	58
7	Oskaloosa	7.9	45
8	Grinnell	7.9	39
9	Carroll	7.9	31
10	Sioux City	7.8	158
11	Council Bluffs	7.8	136
12	Cedar Falls	7.8	111
13	Clinton	7.8	61
14	Vinton	7.8	21
15	Indianola	7.7	59
16	Sioux Center	7.7	27
17	Davenport	7.6	217
18	Muscatine	7.6	62
19	Burlington	7.6	50
20	Fairfield	7.6	40
21	Jefferson	7.6	15
22	Des Moines	7.5	491
23	Ankeny	7.5	163
24	Le Mars	7.5	33
25	Algona	7.5	21
26	Cedar Rapids	7.4	362
27	Ames	7.4	167
28	Mason City	7.4	78
29	Estherville	7.4	20
30	Waterloo	7.3	124
31	Clive	7.3	72
32	West Des Moines	7.2	250
33	Boone	7.2	37
34	Spencer	7.2	32
35	Creston	7.2	19
36	Waukee	7.1	75
37	Newton	7.1	50
38	Winterset	7.1	18
39	Coralville	7.0	85
40	North Liberty	7.0	53
41	Marshalltown	7.0	51
42	Altoona	7.0	49
43	Norwalk	7.0	40
44	Keokuk	7.0	29
45	Mount Vernon	7.0	23
46	Atlantic	7.0	21
47	Harlan	7.0	19
48	Adel	6.9	27
49	Knoxville	6.9	25
50	Manchester	6.9	21
51	Eldora	6.9	11
52	Marion	6.8	71
53	Grimes	6.8	53
54	Pella	6.8	50
55	Clear Lake	6.8	29
56	Arnolds Park	6.8	15
57	Tipton	6.8	13
58	Iowa Falls	6.8	12
59	Osage	6.8	12
60	La Porte City	6.8	7
61	Webster City	6.7	24
62	Washington	6.7	16
63	Johnston	6.6	56
64	Waverly	6.6	43
65	Ottumwa	6.6	40
66	Pleasant Hill	6.6	33
67	Nevada	6.6	25
68	Orange City	6.6	23
69	Dyersville	6.6	21
70	Ida Grove	6.6	10
71	Mount Pleasant	6.5	21
72	Denison	6.5	21
73	Panora	6.5	20
74	Sheldon	6.5	17
75	Hampton	6.5	10
76	Glenwood	6.4	21
77	Coon Rapids	6.4	10
78	Guttenberg	6.4	10
79	Rock Rapids	6.4	10
80	Hiawatha	6.3	34
81	Fort Madison	6.3	22
82	New Hampton	6.3	12
83	Guthrie Center	6.3	10
84	Spirit Lake	6.2	25
85	Colfax	6.2	6
86	Madrid	6.1	12
87	Sanborn	6.1	6
88	Windsor Heights	6.0	15
89	DeWitt	6.0	11
90	Forest City	5.9	20
91	Charles City	5.9	19
92	Story City	5.9	13
93	Elkader	5.9	9
94	Independence	5.8	19
95	Monticello	5.8	18
96	Cherokee	5.8	14
97	Centerville	5.8	14
98	Williamsburg	5.8	13
99	Reinbeck	5.8	12
100	Shenandoah	5.8	12

How do we calculate the score?

Variety (25%) — how many different sports the city covers.
Quality (20%) — richness of each center's information.
Activity (20%) — real user interest over the last 30 days.
Scale (15%) — number of centers in the city.
Density (10%) — centers per resident (dampened).
Courts (10%) — total capacity: number of courts.

Each section is measured as a percentile against the other cities in the United States and combined into the final score, on a 0-10 scale. Variety and density are measured with a uniform instrument (only sources with homogeneous national coverage) so that no city is favored by having a more complete open catalog. We only score cities with population data and a presence in those sources.