While the Tarheel State is mostly known for basketball, which North Carolina city is best for football fans? Well, we’re glad you asked.
Our friends over at Wallethub.com took a look at more than 240 cities across the country to determine which ones are the best for football fans. There’s a lot that goes into this, and they only measured cities that have a professional, or Division I college football team. So, sorry Fayetteville, we didn’t make this list at all.
“For our sample, we chose cities with at least one professional football team (NFL) or at least one college football team (NCAA, including FBS and FCS). We then grouped the cities by division — “Pro Football” and “College Football” — and assigned weights to each divisional category based on its popularity among fans.”
According to Wallet Hub, 62 percent of all Americans say they are at least “somewhat” a fan of professional football. And 54 percent say they are “somewhat” a fan of college football. (That number is likely way higher in the South!)
They rated everything from number of teams, to success of teams, to attendance and even number of coaches the past 10 years. There’s metrics for ticket prices, fan engagement and stadium capacity, among others.
So as Super Bowl LVI approaches this Sunday, let’s take a look at which cities across North Carolina, and the rest of the country, are the best for football fans.
Here in North Carolina, the best city for football fans is: Charlotte! The Queen City came in at No. 25 overall in the rankings, with a solid fan base for the Carolina Panthers, that’s not terribly surprising. Here’s how the rest of North Carolina ranked out, followed by the top 10 cities in the country for football fans: