Charlotte Ranks High For Baseball Fandom: Study

CHARLOTTE, NC — With the World Series in full swing, it seems like the right time to take a look at the different levels of baseball fandom across the United States.

If you consider yourself an avid fan of the sport, or just someone who enjoys watching a ballgame from time to time, we have some potentially good news.

A new study by WalletHub, ranked Charlotte No. 68 in baseball fan experience out of the 361 largest cities in the United States with at least one professional or college team.

When it comes to ticket prices, however, Charlotte was ranked among the worst cities for most expensive minimum season ticket for a minor league game, according to WalletHub. The city also was ranked as having one of the least accessible minor league stadiums.

To determine the rankings, the personal finance website compared the cities based on 31 key indicators of baseball fan-friendliness, including the number of Major League championships won, stadium capacity, fan engagement for local NCAA baseball teams and more.

Here are the complete rankings for our city:

• Overall: 16.6
• Major League Baseball Rank: 27
• Minor League Baseball Rank: 153
• National Collegiate Athletic Association Rank: 93

The Queen City’s minor league baseball team, the Charlotte Knights, recently concluded it’s sixth season at its stadium home of BB&T Ballpark in uptown Charlotte. The team was recently nominated by the International League for the John H. Johnson President’s Award, which is awarded based on a team’s financial stability, and contributions to baseball in the community, as well as league stability.

New York City ranked as the best urban area for baseball in the country, followed by Los Angeles and St. Louis, the study found.

Youngstown, Ohio, took home the dubious honor as the worst baseball city in the United States.

Here are the top 10 overall baseball cities in the nation:

1. New York, NY
2. Los Angeles, CA
3. St. Louis, MO
4. Boston, MA
5. Chicago, IL
6. Atlanta, GA
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Arlington, TX
9. Oakland, CA
10. Cincinnati, OH