Best cities for sports in Massachusetts

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

210 scorable cities in Massachusetts.

#	City	Score /10	Centers
1	Marlborough	8.7	127
2	Boston	8.4	1186
3	Leominster	8.2	91
4	Newburyport	8.1	61
5	Walpole	7.4	48
6	Barnstable Town	7.1	114
7	Amherst Town	7.1	55
8	Salem	7.0	101
9	Stoneham	7.0	54
10	Great Barrington	7.0	36
11	Worcester	6.9	277
12	Northampton	6.9	92
13	Gloucester	6.9	69
14	Holyoke	6.9	60
15	Newton	6.8	187
16	Taunton	6.8	95
17	Westfield	6.8	76
18	Nantucket	6.8	75
19	Weymouth Town	6.8	70
20	Saugus	6.8	52
21	Falmouth	6.8	47
22	Peabody	6.7	126
23	Pittsfield	6.7	96
24	North Attleborough Town	6.7	48
25	East Falmouth	6.7	26
26	Randolph Town	6.7	25
27	Springfield	6.6	155
28	New Bedford	6.6	131
29	Beverly	6.5	98
30	Gardner	6.5	46
31	Agawam Town	6.5	41
32	Woburn	6.4	169
33	Somerville	6.4	164
34	Plymouth	6.4	108
35	Fitchburg	6.4	65
36	Salisbury	6.4	30
37	Winchendon	6.4	13
38	Brookline	6.3	126
39	Danvers	6.3	112
40	Dedham	6.3	109
41	Wellesley	6.3	102
42	Norwood	6.3	101
43	Chicopee	6.3	81
44	Franklin Town	6.3	59
45	Winchester	6.3	50
46	North Adams	6.3	48
47	Braintree Town	6.3	46
48	Northborough	6.3	40
49	Vineyard Haven	6.3	36
50	South Yarmouth	6.3	30
51	Waltham	6.2	191
52	Haverhill	6.2	143
53	Arlington	6.2	94
54	Andover	6.2	90
55	Lexington	6.2	78
56	Belmont	6.2	48
57	Bridgewater Town	6.2	34
58	Chatham	6.2	20
59	Athol	6.2	16
60	Cambridge	6.1	296
61	Quincy	6.1	203
62	Framingham	6.1	161
63	Lowell	6.1	119
64	Medford	6.1	117
65	Attleboro	6.1	67
66	Scituate	6.1	42
67	Greenfield	6.1	38
68	Maynard	6.1	30
69	Brockton	6.0	90
70	Wakefield	6.0	67
71	Foxborough	6.0	62
72	Buzzards Bay	6.0	37
73	Sandwich	6.0	34
74	Abington	6.0	33
75	Malden	5.9	83
76	Lynn	5.9	82
77	Milton	5.9	68
78	Lawrence	5.9	64
79	Reading	5.9	56
80	Southbridge Town	5.9	17
81	South Dennis	5.9	14
82	Fall River	5.8	130
83	Hingham	5.8	81
84	Wilmington	5.8	70
85	Hudson	5.8	66
86	Melrose	5.8	66
87	Milford	5.8	58
88	West Springfield Town	5.8	43
89	Swampscott	5.8	36
90	West Concord	5.8	16
91	Northwest Harwich	5.8	11
92	Marblehead	5.7	65
93	Williamstown	5.7	34
94	East Dennis	5.7	12
95	North Westport	5.7	9
96	Needham	5.6	97
97	Burlington	5.6	90
98	Westborough	5.6	89
99	Everett	5.6	41
100	Marshfield	5.6	39

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.