Why is Katowice so obscure?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Hampton Roads would be the best American equivalent, an urban/metro area that’s bigger than you’d think but obscure due to its polycentrism.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Of course as others have already asked, you might ask why certain polycentric metropolitan areas (Upper Silesian, Ruhr, certain areas in Northern France, Wallonia and Northern England,...) are less prominent than monocentric areas of the same population.

E.g. how well known are any of the Yorkshire cities (Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford etc) to people outside the UK?

I’d be tempted to argue that Headingley is more globally well known than Leeds itself, post-Tendulkar.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I think I will add a corollary to Palandio's excellent post: the polycentric metropolitan area does not exist in the New World or "settled countries" to use a broader term. You can find such cores in not just the European examples but also India, China, and Africa, even after accounting for their higher populations on average. But basically none in the Americans or Oceania.

Bay Area, Hampton Roads, South Florida, Tampa Bay, Fraser Valley, Niagara Region...

I’d add Research Triangle, Piedmont Triad, Connecticut in general and Northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville et al)