The Super Bowl takes place this weekend, and millions of people have cleaned out the grocery store stocks of cheese, soda and ranch dressing. Americans all over the country will join their friends in cheering on their favorite players, laughing at clever commercials and shouting at the referee. Some people are even willing to travel to get the best football experience possible. For those fans who are willing to travel, WalletHub has put together a list of the best cities in the United States for football fans.
WalletHub’s list of cities was based on a comparison of nearly 250 cities on factors such as ticket price for an NFL game, fan friendliness and number of professional or college football teams in the area. Here are the best and worst cities for football fans.
Green Bay, WI
Green Bay took home WalletHub’s award for both the best city overall for football fans and the award for the best city for professional football fans. Green Bay earned a total score of 63.12, but WalletHub did not consider Green Bay to be a good city for college football. The Wisconsin city tied with several other cities for 234th place in college football rankings.
Pittsburg, PA
Pittsburg was named the second best city for both overall football fans and professional football fans. Pittsburg received a score of 59.09 but had a much higher ranking in college football than Green Bay. Pittsburg was named the eighth best city for college football. Pittsburg is also listed as having the second best performing NFL team and tied with Green Bay for the most engaged NFL fans.
Dallas, TX and Boston, MA
Dallas narrowly edged out Boston for third place with a score of 48.92 compared to Boston’s 48.09. These two cities also hold the same rankings in professional football as the overall category. It is uncommon for cities to hold the same rank in the professional football and overall categories.
Boston took home an additional award as well. Boston was named the home of the best performing NFL team on WalletHub’s list. Dallas, however, did not make the top five in any of WalletHub’s additional categories. These extra categories were most engaged college football fans, most engaged NFL fans, most accessible college stadiums, most accessible NFL stadiums, lowest mid-season ticket price for college foot ball games, lowest average ticket price for an NFL game, best performing college football teams and best performing NFL teams.
Worst Cities
Jackson, MS took home the unenviable award of worst overall city for football fans and earned a miniscule score of just 6.38. They also were ranked almost at the bottom of the heap for college football fans as well. Jackson was ranked number 233 while a number of cities tied for 234th place.
Cleveland, OH and Lawrence, KS took home the awards for worst performing NFL team and worst performing college team respectively. Los Angeles was deemed to have the least engaged NFL fans, and New York, NY was said to be home to the least engaged college football fans. While there were some surprises in the rankings, it did not come as a shock to see who some of the highest ranked cities were or to learn that Chicago, New York and San Francisco were among the top five most expensive cities for NFL tickets. However much fun it is to see a game in person, depending on where you live, it might pay to simply stay home and watch from the comfort of your couch.