Love Sports? Best Sport Cities

With the College Football Playoff selection committee to release its final Top 25 ranking on Dec. 2 and the North American sports industry expected to pull in nearly $69.3 billion this year, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best Sports Cities.

To determine the cities where the game is always on regardless of season, WalletHub compared 419 small to large cities across the five largest sports in the U.S.: football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer.

Best vs. Worst

• Cookeville, Tennessee, has the lowest minimum season-ticket prices for a college football (FBS and FCS) game, $36, which is 31.9 times lower than in South Bend, Indiana, the city with the highest at $1,150.
• New Orleans has the lowest average ticket price for an NBA game, $30.20, which is 3.2 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest at $97.77.
• NHL fans in Pittsburgh are 28.3 times friendlier and more engaged than their New York counterparts.
• Dallas has the highest NFL team popularity-index, whereas Los Angeles has the lowest.
• Phoenix has the lowest average MLB ticket price, $19.65, which is 2.9 times lower than in Boston, the city with the highest at $56.97.
• Atlanta has the highest attendance rate for MLS games, 113.41 percent, which is 2.8 times higher than in Minneapolis, the city with the lowest at 40.43 percent.

What makes a good sport city? Experts from WalletHub share their opinion on what they believe makes a good sports city:

Passion, above all else, win or lose. History, too. And winning teams.

Philadelphia - very passionate for its teams. Even for losing teams. Some fans can be very rough.

St. Louis: devoted to baseball.

Boston: In love with Red Sox since 1967; Celtics domination in the 1960's, then Larry Bird. A hockey town and pretty excited over Patriots' success.

Detroit and Pittsburgh: Loyal fans.

Chicago: Crazy over Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks and Jordan.

George Solomon, Director, Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, University of Maryland

“A few things; a really passionate fan base, a few professional teams - places that only have one are all focused on that one sport; college teams can be part of it, but a predominate of college only makes it, focused on that one area as well. You also need a good food and bar scene - places where people feel comfortable to go, gather and watch/discuss the game. The idea of everyone getting together and rooting makes you part of the town.”

Dan Azzaro, Professional Lecturer, College of Communication, DePaul University

To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-sports-cities/15179/

Courtesy: WalletHub

Photo Courtesy: Donkey335 CC-BY-SA 4.0 from Wikimedia Commons