Philadelphia Named 37th Best Baseball City...But Pittsburgh Is Second?

Good and bad news for local sports fans: Philadelphia was named the 37th best sports city in the nation, according to a new ranking by WalletHub, and that list of 272 of the most populated cities included many college towns.

The bad news may be how much Philadelphia was beat by its cross-state rivals in Pittsburgh, who were ranked second.

The rankings were based primarily on two key metrics: the number of major league and NCAA Division 1 teams and their performance, and the costs and fan engagement in each city.

Perhaps the most notable difference between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was ticket prices. Pittsburgh had the fourth lowest average price, while Philadelphia was less expensive than only New York and Boston.

Philadelphia also ranked poorly in the “accessible stadium” category, presumably because Citizens Bank Park is well outside the city center.

St. Louis took top honors on the list. New York City tied Philadelphia at 37th.

Source: WalletHub

In the image above, the lighter blue dots represent a higher ranking, while the darker orange dots represent a lower ranking. Lighter orange, brownish, and dark blue circles are cities that are more towards the middle of the list.

Also representing Pennsylvania were University Park (99th), Villanova (143), Lewisburg (149), Easton (235), and Bethlehem (250).

Critics of the study could point to the fact that the “teams and performance” metrics only analyze a city’s teams’ performances for the last three years. The Phillies, for instance, have had much more success than the Pirates in the past 10 or 15 years, but have struggled the last three. Few experts would argue that the Pirates franchise is the most successful one since 2000.

Factors like minor league teams and or even number of youth leagues were not taken into account.

WalletHub says that baseball is the second most followed sport in America, with over 52 million adult fans.