Portland vs. Seattle: Crowning the best sports city

State of play: The soccer rivalry between the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders is the stuff of legend, fueled in part by both teams having some stellar seasons to look back on.

• The Sounders have brought home the MLS Cup twice, while the Timbers laid claim to it once, in 2015.
• The Sounders have also made the MLS playoffs almost twice as many times as the Timbers. Make of that what you will.

The latest: The University of Oregon outperformed the University of Washington in football this past season — no question.

• But only one of those college teams has made it to the championship game in the past two years — and it sure wasn't the Ducks.

Kale's rebuttal: I won't dispute any of what Melissa laid out.

• We don't have hockey or football and Portland seems to be better at talking about having a baseball team than actually having one.
• If you're a professional athlete, Seattle is a great place to live (unless you're Kevin Durant, apparently).

But Portland is no sports slouch.

• Congrats to the Huskies on making it to a championship game! The Ducks have been there twice since 2010 and have a Heisman Trophy winner to boot.

• Beyond football, the Ducks have Hayward Field — a world-class track and field facility — where the Huskies' track and field athletes come when there's a serious race to run. Woof.
• It's not just on the field, either. While we'll give you REI headquarters — a great place to grab some granola or a $17 carabiner — there's a reason Under Armour, Adidas and Nike all chose Portland to run their global operations.

Advantage: Seattle.