<p>How do you treat sports teams, as singular or plural?</p>
<p>ex. The [Detroit] Lions are losing the most.
or The [Detroit] Lions is losing the most.</p>
<p>Would the situation change if "Detroit" was written in instead of just "Lions"?</p>
<p>Honestly–as weird as this sounds–I use is for sports teams. The Vancouver Canucks is one team in the NHL. Columbus is obviously one city.</p>
<p>Bump, I would also like clarification on this.</p>
<p>Proper Nouns that look plural are treated plural, even when they are collective nouns.</p>
<p>The Beattles are a well-known band.
The Saints are the champions.</p>
<p>Yes the sentence would be different if you use Detroit.
The Lions are no good this year.
Ya, Detroit is an awful team. </p>
<p>You can read about it here:
[Comparison</a> of American and British English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Comparison of American and British English - Wikipedia”>Comparison of American and British English - Wikipedia)</p>