The Best & Worst Cities For Football Fans In 2021

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Nothing fires you guys up like a good, old fashioned fight over which city is the best out there for football fans. The crew at WalletHub.com went out and did the research to come up with the overall rankings for best and worst cities for football fans. They used a weighted system that allowed college towns to compete against NFL cities to determine a winner.

A total of 21 metrics were used to determine WalletHub’s rankings including best-performing NFL teams, worst-performing NFL teams, best-performing NCAA teams, worst-performing NCAA teams, lowest average ticket price for NFL game, highest average ticket price for NFL game, etc. WalletHub really dug deep into the metrics, going as far as using ‘Number of Coaches in Past 10 Seasons’ as part of its points system.

Overall, Pittsburgh is WalletHub’s 2021 Best City For Football fans due to its dominance in the pro football metrics as well as a solid showing in college football, even though the Pitt Panthers aren’t exactly a powerhouse.

Dig into all of the results to see where your city ranks:

Best Cities for Football Fans Worst Cities for Football Fans
1. Pittsburgh, PA 236. Fort Collins, CO
2. Dallas, TX 237. Louisville, KY
3. Boston, MA 238. New Britain, CT
4. Green Bay, WI 239. Columbia, SC
5. New York, NY 240. Ithaca, NY
6. Miami, FL 241. Davidson, NC
7. New Orleans, LA 242. Valparaiso, IN
8. Los Angeles, CA 243. Providence, RI
9. Indianapolis, IN 244. Stephenville, TX
10. San Francisco, CA 245. St. George, UT

Observations from the findings:

• Cincinnati (20th) beats rival Cleveland (25th), thanks to its college football scene. Cleveland is a miserable No. 237 as a college football town, thanks to a lack of college football.

• Fargo, North Dakota is an astounding No. 33, thanks to a No. 3 overall ranking as a college football town.

• Clemson is the No. 1 college football city for fans with Tuscaloosa No. 2. However, Tuscaloosa was cited as the best small city for football fans with Clemson a close second. Let the fighting commence.

• Lincoln, Nebraska likes to think of itself as some great college football city, but Wallet Hub just destroyed that myth. It ranks the city No. 199 for college fans, dropping the city to No. 211 in the U.S. It is therefore one of the worst cities in America for football fans.

• It’s sad to see SEC cities such as Columbia, South Carolina; Fayetteville, Arkansas and College Station, Texas at the bottom of the rankings. Those cities are down there with sad football city Lawrence, Kansas.

• Green Bay would never lose this battle if it had a decent college football program.

• St. George, Utah got its first standalone bar — one not attached to a golf course or a hotel — in 2019. That is all you need to know about the worst city in the United States for football fans.

Written by Joe Kinsey

Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America.

Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league.

Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.

9 Comments

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  1. Interesting. Unfortunately, WalletHub missed on this one! As the area that founded football in the US, ranking Cleveland 237th as a college football town is RIDICULOUS! Bars are packed on college football Saturday. We have several incredibly successful programs in our backyard or within a two hour drive: Ohio State University, Kent State, Toledo, Bowling Green, Youngstown State, small school powerhouse Mount Union, John Carrol, Baldwin Wallace, NAIA powerhouse Ashland, DII up and coming Notre Dame College, etc. There are also the biggest Alumni organization for all off these universities in the Greater Cleveland area! Lastly, many legendary and successful college coaches grew up or cut their teeth at these same institutions: Urban Meyer, Nick Sabam, The Stoops family, Matt Campbell and on and on and on.

    • Yeah, I don’t get some of these. San Diego is at #23 for college. SDSU has had a solid run the last few years, but San Diego doesn’t exactly turn into Tuscaloosa on game day.

      I also had to look up where Hamilton, NY is located. Its an hour away from Syracuse, the closest major college football team. Hamilton is ranked #16 for college football. Syracuse? #143. LOL.

      • After seeing this ranking for the second time, having LA as a Top 10 NFL city is hilarious!! In Cleveland, we just celebrated 1-31 as Hue Jackson Day because we only won one game in two seasons… most people I know watched every one of those games!!

        Whoever WalletHub is, I will remember to pay them no mind…

  2. I do enjoy these bar-argument type ranking articles, probably more than I should.

    I do have some questions about Pittsburgh’s ranking. NFL at #1, fine, a case can easily be made. But college at #13? Does Pitt really matter that much? That’s ahead of Norman, OK and Athens, GA.

    Then again, Fargo, ND is ranked #3 for college football cities. Which is almost as funny as Hanover, NH at #10. HANOVER

    • Obviously Pitt doesn’t move the needle too much anymore, but Pittsburgh is a great college football town. Penn State has a huge alumni base there. You also have a lot of West Virginia and Ohio State fans since those schools are relatively close. Bars there are always packed with fans on college football Saturdays.

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