WalletHub unveils 2019’s Best Cities for Soccer Fans report
WalletHub, a finance website, unveiled its 2019’s Best Cities for Soccer Fans rankings this month, with Los Angeles claiming the top spot.
The study sized up 280-plus U.S. cities that boast a pro or collegiate soccer team and analyzed them across several metrics. Some of the metrics include attendance, recent on-pitch success, affordability of season ticket prices and stadium accessibility and championships won. In all, the study used 52 “key metrics” to rank the cities.
Here are the top 30 soccer cities in America, according to the report:
1. Los Angeles
2. Orlando, Fla.
3. Salt Lake City
4. Portland, Ore.
5. Seattle
6. Atlanta
7. Kansas City, Mo.
8. New York
9. Washington
10. Cary, N.C.
11. Chicago
12. Cincinnati
13. Dallas
14. Boston
15. Columbus, Ohio
16. Houston
17. Denver
18. New Brunswick, N.J.
19. San Jose, Calif.
20. Minneapolis
21. Philadelphia
22. Louisville, Ky.
23. Bethlehem, Pa.
24. Charleston, S.C.
25. Sacramento, Calif.
26. St. Louis
27. Nashville, Tenn.
28. Edinburg, Texas
29. Indianapolis
30. Las Vegas
Of course, as is the case with most lists like this one, the rankings tend to be quite subjective. Even though all the cities were weighed against the same metrics, who’s to say that certain factors shouldn’t have been weighed more heavily than others?
For example, should on-pitch performance even matter all that much, especially considering that criterion seems to be based heavily on 2018? That metric appears to have really hurt San Jose, Calif.’s ranking. The Earthquakes finished off a miserable 2018 campaign at the bottom of the Supporters’ Shield standings, but have completely turned things around in 2019 and are every bit a playoff contender in the Western Conference. San Jose still earned a respectable ranking of 19th, but found itself surprisingly behind a couple smaller towns ranked highly in the study like Cary and New Brunswick. San Jose’s ranking was negatively affected by being considered the “worst-performing MLS team” in the report.
Looking farther down the list, another glaring ranking issue that makes one question the metrics is rating Evansville, Ind. as a better soccer city than Chattanooga, Tenn.
Evansville clocks in at 201st on the list, while Chattanooga — which boasts one of the most successful lower-division clubs in the country in Chattanooga FC and also just added Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, a USL League One side — sits way down in the 207th position. Evansville is a mid-sized college town, but boasts little in the way of high-level soccer outside of the University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana men’s and women’s programs.
Any way you slice it, studies such as this one that essentially create their own criteria and attempt to rank soccer fans and cities are always ripe to be nitpicked and going to turn out imperfect. That said, it’s still rather interesting to see the results. The study should hold at least a little bit of merit given the transparency of WalletHub’s process and willingness to explore markets across many different metrics, however subjective they may be.
Do you agree or disagree with WalletHub’s 2019’s Best Cities for Soccer list? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KJboxing.
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