I wouldn't consider "It is ok if you don't like sports" to be an insult and I certainly didn't intend it that way. I apologize if that came off too hostile. It was simply meant as a recognition of the obvious, that this person did not see any value in professional sports.

I'm not saying Tokyo, London, and Paris are famous only because of sports. That would be ridiculous. I am saying that sports is a part of their cultural identity. It provides unity to those cities. It helps attract people to those cities. Those cities are also historic. This effect is more prominent in cities with less history. For example, Buffalo and Rochester are two metro areas in New York of roughly equal size. I would bet that many Americans could tell you a lot more about Buffalo than Rochester and that is likely because of Buffalo's two professional sports teams.