These Are The Best (And Worst) Cities For Football Fans in 2019

For many people around the United States, football is far more than just a game - it's a sacred American tradition that begins with Friday Night Lights and ends on Any Given Sunday

Of course, not all cities are equal when it comes to football. After all, Los Angeles went without an NFL team for two decades before the Rams and Chargers moved to town. 

Personal finance website WalletHub looked at 240 cities with at least one college level or professional football team and compared them across 21 metrics. Cities were ranked on the number of NFL and college football teams, the average price of a ticket and how friendly teams are for fans. 

After all, football is America's favorite sport to watch , with more people tuning in for NFL games than baseketball, baseball, and soccer combined. 

So which city in the U.S. is filled with the biggest NFL fans? 

If you're looking to root for the winners, you'd do well to live in Boston. The Patriots have appeared in the Super Bowl eleven times in franchise history - nine of which since coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady joined the team in 2000. 

The team will try and repeat the magic once again this year as the Patriots appear in the big game Feb. 3rd, as they square off against the Los Angeles Rams.

Some of the other top-ranked cities for NFL superfans included Pittsburgh, PA, Dallas, TX, New York, NY and Miami, FL. 

If you're a Cleveland Browns fan, first of all, our sympathies. Second, it's probably no surprise that Cleveland ranks as one of the worst-performing NFL teams in WalletHub's survey. If it makes you feel any better, you've got some good company. The New York Jets, the San Francisco 49er's, Arizona Cardinals and Jacksonville Jaguars rounded out the top five worst performing teams in the NFL. (You'll get 'em next year fellas!). 

But, the good news about having a terrible team in your city, ticket prices are incredibly reasonable. Cleveland and Jacksonville both ranked as having some of the cheapest tickets available for fans. 

Despite the fact that Los Angeles has two NFL teams, the southern California city ranked as having some of the least-engaged NFL fans in the league. Of course, that could change now that the Rams are making their first appearance in the big game since 2001. 

The other question residents ask is whether it's worth having an NFL team in town. After all, are they an economic positive or are they a drain on cities' resources? What about cities who have two teams (like Los Angeles and New York?) 

Alexandre Olbrecht, an associate professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey says in the short term, professional football teams are a drain on cities. 

"In short, teams in a best case scenario provide no net benefit to economic growth and more than likely actually cause a city's GDP to be lower. If the team is subsidized the outcomes are even worse for the city," said Olbrecht. 

However, hosting a Super Bowl can be a big benefit for cities economically speaking - that is, so long as the game isn't crowding out tourism that would otherwise naturally occur in the city. 

"If Super Bowl tourism crowds out regular tourism during that time period, then it may have a negligible effect. I haven't read any studies that have looked at this, but there is plenty of evidence that the Olympics and the Soccer World Cup is a net negative," said Olbrecht. 

Photo: Wallethub & Unsplash


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content