Pretty much anyone that lives in a city with a pro or college sports team thinks that their town is the best sports town. Just ask anyone from St. Louis.
So with the college and pro football now upon us along with baseball nearing the post-season WalletHub conducted a rather intriguing study to determine which towns really are 2015’s best cities for sports fans.
WalletHub compared 341 cities — varying in size from small to large — across more than 50 key metrics, so it wasn’t some rinky-dink operation they did here. Some of the metrics included the performance level of the city’s team(s), average ticket price of a game, number of sports bars and attendance rate. They even ranked each town by major sport specifically.
Here just are a few of the unique things they discovered…
— The viewership rate for NFL games Green Bay is three times higher than in Oakland.
— The average ticket price for an NBA game in New York is three times more expensive than in New Orleans.
— Morgantown, West Virginia has 38 times more sports bars per capita than Evanston, Illinois.
— NHL fans in Pittsburgh are 28 times friendlier and more engaged than those in New York.
— The attendance rate for MLS games in San Jose is two times higher than in Orlando.
Here are the top 10 rankings based on city size along with the top 10 overall…
Best Large Cities for Sports Fans
1 Boston, MA
2 Denver, CO
3 Pittsburgh, PA
4 Washington, DC
5 Chicago, IL
6 New York, NY
7 Minneapolis, MN
8 Philadelphia, PA
9 Detroit, MI
10 St. Louis, MO
Best Midsize Cities for Sports Fans
1 Ann Arbor, MI
2 Cincinnati, OH
3 Orlando, FL
4 Gainesville, FL
5 Norman, OK
6 Baton Rouge, LA
7 Columbia, SC
8 Buffalo, NY
9 Waco, TX
10 Eugene, OR
Best Small Cities for Sports Fans
1 East Lansing, MI
2 Stanford, CA
3 Chapel Hill, NC
4 West Point, NY
5 Clemson, SC
6 Bowling Green, OH
7 College Park, MD
8 Morgantown, WV
9 Fayetteville, AR
10 Oxford, MS
Best Cities Overall for Sports Fans
1 Boston, MA
2 Denver, CO
3 East Lansing, MI
4 Pittsburgh, PA
5 Washington, DC
6 Chicago, IL
7 New York, NY
8 Ann Arbor, MI
9 Minneapolis, MN
10 Philadelphia, PA
Sorry, Hackensack, New Jersey, but you came in dead last out of the 341. Maybe next year.
For a complete breakdown, including the full rankings, lists by sport, methodology and more head on over to WalletHub.