As Super Bowl mania takes the nation by storm, a new study conducted by a personal finance website places Buffalo in the top 10 percent of best football cities in the nation.Analysts at WalletHub researched more than 240 cities with at least one professional or college football team, taking into account 17 benchmarks. The metrics ranged from fan engagement and ticket prices, to stadium capacity, parking accessibility and team performance.
Buffalo ranks 21st on the list of best football cities in the nation. Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and New York top the list.
Analyst Jill Gonzalez told WBFO Buffalo scored high grades for fan engagement.
“We looked at a few different things, specifically…Twitter followers, Facebook likes and how many people are actively posting on these channels, and Buffalo did quite well here. It ranked in the Top 15,” she said.
The region’s football infrastructure helped to nudge Buffalo higher on the list, as did ticket prices and parking costs that are lower than in many other communities.
“Stadium accessibility is important and that is one thing that the Bills stadium does have,” Gonzalez said. “So when it comes to parking, there are ample spaces. When it comes to cost, not too high here.”
When the study categorizes cities by size, Buffalo rise to the Number Two spot on the list of best football cities, only behind the region that is home to the Arizona Cardinals. However, most of the cities that appear on the medium-size list do not have NFL teams.
Team performance was also a metric in the Wallethub study, a factor that helped place the New England Patriots in the Top 5. Gonzalez said performance is important but “is not everything.”
“Loyal fans certainly do really come into this even more so,” she said.
