From the first Spanish settlement in 1531 until 1542, the city was relocated several times due to resistance from the native population. The city was made the seat of a bishop in 1549 and remained prominent throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Substantial growth occurred after the 1930s, and by the 1970s the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area was the second largest city in Mexico. Today, the economy is based on being the political and commercial center for the surrounding agricultural region.
As in most Mexican cities, football is played every day in the streets and parks. But the city of Guadalajara is helping push that even further, having established numerous projects to promote sports in schools in order to teach children healthy lifestyles, develop social values and generate teamwork habits.
The state of Jalisco has roots in football and over the years has had different representative teams in professional football. Currently there are two top division football teams: Club Deportivo / Chivas de Guadalajara (with a home-grown players policy) and Los Zorros de Atlas. Chivas is one of the ten founding members of the Mexican first Division and used to also own Chivas USA which played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer in Los Angeles.
The City of Guadalajara was a Host City for the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cup™ Finals, a football venue during the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games and has hosted the 2011 Pan American Games.
In 2017, Guadalajara also hosted the Davis Cup Americas game and Mexico v Paraguay in the Metropolitan Sports Center. Guadalajara has also hosted the annual Jalisco Open tennis tournament since 2011, the 2016 Pan-American Team Continental Championship and the 2015 Junior Open International badminton competitions. The velodrome in Guadalajara has hosted events for the Track Cycling World Cup for the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons and the Pan American Masters Course and Track in Jalisco in 2016. Jalisco has twice hosted the FIVB Beach Volleyball Puerto Vallarta Open in 2015 and 2016 and the Beach Volleyball Open in 2014.