Best cities for sports in Maryland

BookrGo Best Sport Cities ranking: we rank the cities of Maryland 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.

260 scorable cities in Maryland.

#	City	Score /10	Centers
1	Elkton	8.8	50
2	Rockville	8.7	288
3	Severna Park	8.5	111
4	Potomac	8.5	101
5	Mount Airy	8.5	45
6	Columbia	8.4	313
7	Frederick	8.4	274
8	Annapolis	8.4	253
9	Odenton	8.4	72
10	Cambridge	8.4	31
11	Glen Burnie	8.3	112
12	Towson	8.2	136
13	Timonium	8.2	74
14	Prince Frederick	8.2	33
15	Gaithersburg	8.1	242
16	Bethesda	8.0	227
17	Hagerstown	8.0	136
18	Westminster	8.0	72
19	Cumberland	8.0	58
20	Havre de Grace	8.0	40
21	Leonardtown	8.0	24
22	Darnestown	8.0	21
23	Easton	7.9	79
24	Hyattsville	7.9	61
25	Eldersburg	7.9	55
26	Gambrills	7.9	40
27	Linthicum	7.9	22
28	Ocean City	7.8	173
29	Ellicott City	7.8	131
30	Laurel	7.8	124
31	Catonsville	7.8	86
32	Cockeysville	7.8	79
33	Berlin	7.8	60
34	Chestertown	7.8	30
35	Silver Spring	7.7	252
36	Bowie	7.7	126
37	Upper Marlboro	7.7	61
38	Salisbury	7.6	135
39	Bel Air	7.6	30
40	White Marsh	7.6	28
41	Fallston	7.6	27
42	Konterra	7.6	11
43	Waldorf	7.5	125
44	Pasadena	7.5	59
45	College Park	7.4	80
46	Crofton	7.4	54
47	Elkridge	7.4	53
48	Lanham	7.4	30
49	Mechanicsville	7.4	16
50	Dundalk	7.3	60
51	Middle River	7.3	46
52	Baltimore	7.2	821
53	Olney	7.2	61
54	Essex	7.2	57
55	La Plata	7.2	47
56	Kensington	7.2	34
57	Edgewater	7.2	32
58	Lexington Park	7.2	32
59	North East	7.2	21
60	Derwood	7.2	13
61	Bel Air North	7.1	34
62	Chester	7.1	18
63	New Market	7.1	14
64	Reisterstown	7.0	34
65	Frostburg	7.0	28
66	Abingdon	7.0	28
67	Damascus	7.0	27
68	Jessup	7.0	23
69	Hampstead	7.0	22
70	Sykesville	7.0	19
71	Temple Hills	7.0	19
72	Pikesville	6.9	54
73	Parkville	6.8	41
74	Parole	6.8	34
75	Wheaton	6.8	30
76	Stevensville	6.8	28
77	Perry Hall	6.7	33
78	Oxon Hill	6.7	27
79	Rising Sun	6.7	20
80	Germantown	6.6	124
81	Owings Mills	6.6	101
82	Arnold	6.6	37
83	Poolesville	6.6	14
84	Aberdeen	6.5	30
85	Edgewood	6.5	22
86	Oakland	6.5	21
87	Lusby	6.5	21
88	North Bethesda	6.4	87
89	Solomons	6.4	24
90	Thurmont	6.4	17
91	Cabin John	6.4	7
92	Montgomery Village	6.3	37
93	California	6.3	36
94	Edgemere	6.3	25
95	Forestville	6.3	21
96	Fort Meade	6.3	17
97	Arbutus	6.3	14
98	Savage	6.3	13
99	Linganore	6.3	11
100	Ballenger Creek	6.2	25

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.