Lawrence is America's #1 sports town!

The guys who broadcast from Allen Fieldhouse on ESPN always stay at the Eldridge. I love these guys, they're incredibly friendly and nice. Recently, one of the gentleman who comes and stays here wrote an article about the best cities in the Big 12. As you can imagine, Lawrence ranked in at #1. Here's the article:

Ranking the Big 12 towns

November 8, 2008 12:25 AM

Posted by ESPN's Eric Posman

As a veteran of ESPN/ABC College Football and College Basketball broadcasts, I do my fair share of frequent-flying. But to jet-set to the Big 12, that's only half the battle. Find a rental car you like and break out the GPS, we're going to caravan through America's Heartland and check out the towns that house your favorite teams. There is no scientific basis for these rankings, and by no means have I seen every restaurant or hot spot in each town. But I have been to all of them, multiple times.

1. Lawrence, Kan. -- The quintessential college town. A true blend of sports and studies in a bucolic slice of Americana. Allen Fieldhouse, home of the reigning championships is one of the holiest sites in sports, with an A-plus crowd. Not to mention the rustic, refurbished Eldridge, home of my favorite hotel bar/restaurant and better mac-n-cheese than my mom's. Did I mention the Eldridge is haunted? I stayed in the supposedly haunted guest suite this past February. I can't confirm the supernatural, but I did experience "strange" occurrences. If you manage to survive the night, you can roll out of bed and hit the coffee place across the street or any other joint within a couple of blocks no matter how cold the weather is. Massachusetts Ave. is one-stop shopping for just about everything.

Here's the inside of Allen Fieldhouse on game night:

You can see how packed the games usually are. And if you really want to know how much KU fans love their teams, check out this picture of downtown after KU won the NCAA championship, taken from the roof of the Eldridge.