91 Best Sights in USA

Cal Ripken Stadium brings Single-A baseball to town with the IronBirds, an Orioles minor-league affiliate team. Owned by Cal Ripken, the team plays short-season ball every June to September in Ripken Stadium, a 5,500-seat venue complete with skyboxes. Future plans include opening the Ripken Museum and a hotel.

One of the country's top-grossing sports and entertainment venues, the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena averages more than 200 events each year and has helped to turn the surrounding area into the most vibrant part of Downtown, where you'll find several of the city's best restaurants. Many restaurants nearby offer pre-theater menus and happy hour offerings before a big event. Sporting events include hockey featuring the Stanley Cup champion, Washington Capitals; basketball with the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, and Georgetown Hoyas; and figure-skating events. Artists like Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, U2, and Lady Gaga have performed there. Outside, street musicians of all kinds and styles add to the experience. The Metro station is directly below the arena.

This sports-and-entertainment complex along the Hudson River between 17th and 23rd Streets, a phenomenal example of adaptive reuse, is the size of four 80-story buildings laid out flat. There's pretty much every kind of sports activity happening both inside and out, including golf (check out the multitier, all-weather outdoor driving range), sailing classes, ice-skating, rock climbing, soccer, bowling, gymnastics, and basketball. Plus there's a spa and elite sport-specific training. Chelsea Piers is also the jumping-off point for some of the city's boat tours and dinner cruises.

Cincinnati's National Football League team plays in state-of-the-art Paul Brown Stadium on the riverfront. In 2007 the stadium placed 101st out of 150 buildings in an American Institute of Architects survey of the country's favorite architecture.

The oldest professional team in baseball and 1990 World Champions play at Great American Ball Park from April through October. Fans in the cheap seats get views of the Ohio River, the nineteenth-century mansions across the way in Kentucky, and the rugged hills farther south. One of the National League's newer ballparks, the Reds' $320 million marvel manages to look both retro and modern, with its brick facade, white metal light towers, and sleek black Batter's Eye Pavilion in center field. The stadium seats just over 42,000.

Most of Austin moves at a relaxed pace, but here, just 14 miles southeast of downtown, things speed up considerably. The Circuit of The Americas, set on 1,500 acres, was primarily built for Formula One Grand Prix racing, and when F1 rolls around as part of a 19-country worldwide tour, 500 million pairs of eyes are suddenly on Austin and thousands of global travelers arrive in the capital city. A wide range of other motor-racing events also take place here, including NASCAR, and the grounds have hosted ESPN’s X-Games. The 14,000-seat amphitheater is a year-round venue for countless big-name music acts, from Taylor Swift to the Rolling Stones.

Since 2004, the Philadelphia Phillies have played in Citizens Bank Park, a 42,792-seat stadium that has a 13,000-square-foot interactive kids' baseball experience called The Yard. Ticketed tours are available all year long and feature stops in the Phillies’ dugout, the Diamond Club, the Hall of Fame Club, the broadcast booth, and the media room.

Indoor ice rinks don't usually grab your attention, but City National Arena, a few blocks north from downtown Summerlin, is worth a closer look. This is the practice facility for the Vegas Golden Knights, who are here daily (when they're home), with practices open to the public and free. The rink also is the center of the region's amateur hockey scene, meaning ice-time is hard to come by on weekends. There are skating and hockey skill classes offered as well. On the second floor, a pub shows Knights games and offers food and drink specials. During big games, the scene up here can get pretty raucous.

Cleveland's NFL team plays from September through December at Cleveland Browns Stadium, a modern facility in every sense of the word. Football is an unwavering passion here, and tickets are scarce; any individual tickets are sold starting in July. Seats in the Dawg Pound, a lively area behind the northeast end zone, are highly desirable.

Fans mob Quicken Loans Arena, near Jacobs Field in the Gateway District, to see local phenom LeBron James and Cleveland's NBA team.

The Indians, Cleveland's boys of summer, play the pasttime at downtown Jacobs Field between April through September. If they're available, consider grabbing tickets on the lower levels down the right- or left-field lines, where the seats are angled toward home plate. The bleachers offer decent views of the action, too.

So Cleveland's terrain isn't exactly alpine, but the guides here take all comers to rocky outcrops in the Cleveland Metroparks. Outdoor dates are limited to the summer, but the indoor facility, with its indoor top rope climbing wall, bouldering area, and weight-lifting equipment, is open year-round. Rental equipment and classes are available. The gym is a 10-minute drive from downtown Cleveland.

The roof of Seattle's major arena dates from the 1962 World's Fair, but everything beneath it is the product of a $1.15 billion rebuild completed in 2021. The only way to see the inside is to attend an event—it's home to Seattle's WNBA and NHL teams and hosts concert throughout the year. If you do, you're likely to be impressed by its features including a spectacular entrance with 50-foot-tall windows, 39 plant species spread over a 1,700-square-foot "living wall," and more LED lights than in any other arena in the world.

Home to the Lakers, the Sparks, and the ice hockey team Los Angeles Kings, the Crypto.com Arena is Downtown's top sports destination. It's also the preferred venue for superstars like Bruce Springsteen, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber. Though not open for visits except during events, the saucer-shape building is eye-catching.

Austin bleeds burnt orange, and nowhere is that more evident than at a UT football game at Darrell K. Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, on the campus of the University of Texas. Originally constructed in 1924, this massive stadium—it can hold over a whopping 100,000 fans—has been the official home of the Longhorns from the very start. Score tickets to a fall game or join one of the hundreds of tailgate parties and locally sponsored fan-centric events at or around the stadium.

Though most people think Austin’s sports teams only wear burnt orange, a little ways north, the colors are all red, white, and blue. Dell Diamond is home to the Round Rock Express, a minor league baseball team that feeds into the Texas Rangers. And while it’s fun to catch a game under the wide-open sky and bright lights, the stadium itself is worth the trip alone. The state-of-the-art facilities have everything you’d expect—huge jumbotrons and a pool-party area sit behind the outfield—and some things that you might not, like a rock-climbing wall and bungee trampoline. Tours are held year round every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:30, 10, and 10:30, and also while the team is on the road during the summer.

The grandstands can accommodate up to 5,000 spectators for exciting NASCAR racing in spring and fall. If spectating is not enough, you can find out what it's like to drive by getting behind the wheel of a real race car on the 1-mile Monster Mile track. The track also hosts the Firefly Music Festival in June. Also on-site is the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino.

The third-oldest racetrack in the country sits just off Esplanade Avenue, among the houses of Bayou St. John. Thanksgiving is the start of racing season, as tens of thousands of New Orleanians swing by the track in colorful hats and outfits before the holiday dinner. It's a spectacle, and a great way to kick off a racing calendar that lasts through March. The popular Starlight Racing series, held Friday nights during racing season, features live music, DJs, food trucks, a beer garden, and go-go dancers dressed as jockeys. The grounds are also home to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. To eat at the clubhouse, be sure to make reservations and be aware that proper attire is required—in this case that means collared shirts, closed shoes, and no shorts.

FedEx Forum is the home of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and University of Memphis Men's Basketball.

First Horizon Park is home to Nashville's triple-A baseball team, the Nashville Sounds. Game attendees will enjoy a variety of concessions, including craft cocktails and small bites at the outfield bar, The Band Box. And if you can't sit through an entire baseball game without getting fidgety, the park also has ping-pong tables and a minigolf course to keep you entertained.

Home to the Major League Soccer club Nashville SC, this 30,000-seat stadium is the largest soccer-specific stadium in the United States and Canada. The venue opened in May 2022 and has quickly become a towering feature of the neighborhood, both literally and figuratively. Single game tickets run about $20 to $30. Concerts and other events are staged here in addition to soccer games. Tours are available on Fridays when no events are scheduled and must be booked in advance. The Nashville SC Team Store off Benton Avenue is open daily.

Designed to resemble a turn-of-the-century ballpark, sports enthusiasts will appreciate this shrine to Georgia sports and its Hall of Fame honoring more than 400 inductees. Exhibits, though dated, include a variety of artifacts and interactive, touch-screen kiosks and honor sports—including baseball, golf, track and field, and football—at all levels, from prep and college teams to professional.

A consistent presence since 1988, The Gun Store puts you on the range with a machine gun of your choice. When you walk in, you're greeted with a wall full of weapons, including still-functional weapons from history. Pick your era: hose the target a steady diet of lead Cagney-style with a Thompson. World War II buffs might go for an MP40 Schmeisser. Have a flair for the international? Grab an Uzi or Sten. They've got handguns, rifles, and shotguns, too. The guns are real, but some of the packages offer fanciful paper targets of space aliens. Save the next-door Tiki di Amore for after, as a sign out front warns intoxicated persons away.

Baseball doesn't get much more authentic or close-up than at Hadlock, home to The minor league Portland Sea Dogs. Whether you've come for the excellent sight lines, to watch a specific player (the team is a feeder for the Boston Red Sox, after all), or just to soak up the old-school thrill of watching a mascot throw prizes to kids in the crowd, you're in for a few hours of smiles and vintage Americana.

Learn more about the history of track-and-field at the University of Oregon by paying a visit to Hayward Hall, a 4,000-square-foot exhibition space featuring interactive displays and running-related ephemera. Windows near the entrance look out over the historic Hayward Field, which was demolished and rebuilt from scratch to host the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

Opened in 2024, the Intuit Dome is Inglewood's newest sports and entertainment venue, seating 18,000 and serving as the home of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. Its instantly iconic steel-and-fabric grid architecture is a high-tech nod to a basketball net. Visitors enter through tiered "sky gardens" that let in natural light and set the stage for the experience inside, which includes a huge 360-degree halo screen. Another standout feature at the Dome is the Wall, a floor-to-ceiling set of rows behind the net that amplifies fan voices and creates an imposing home-court advantage.

Kauffman Stadium, home of Major League Baseball's Royals

The newest addition to downtown Summerlin is also the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the Class-AAA affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. The 10,000-seat stadium opened in time for the 2019 season and was named the best Triple-A Minor League park in 2019 by Baseball Digest. Amenities include breathable mesh seats to keep fans cool during summer, a kids’ zone, and a pool beyond the outfield wall (to name a few). General admission tickets go for as low as $17 a pop, and there are two tiers of seats with prices that include two beers and all-you-can-eat food. There are vegetarian menu options, including a smoked tofu bowl. The stadium replaces Cashman Field, a circa-1983 downtown ballpark that was home to the team under its previous name, the Las Vegas 51s.