Clemson Crushes Columbia In Football City Poll

WalletHub looked at 249 cities in the U.S. with at least one college or pro football team, ranking them on 21 key metrics including the number of NFL or college teams per city, stadium capacity, average ticket price and fan friendliness.

• Topping the list overall is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. It scored a 61.61 out of 100, coming in first for pro football and 10 for college football.
• The number one city for college football is Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• As for the cities represented by this year’s Super Bowl teams, Kansas City ranks 10th overall and seventh for pro football, while Philadelphia comes in 15th overall and 21st for pro football.
• On the flip side, Valparaiso, Indiana comes in dead last at number 249, making it the worst city for football fans overall.

Top 10 Cities for Football Fans in 2023

(Click here to see the list)

1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2. Green Bay, Wisconsin
3. Dallas, Texas
4. Boston, Massachusetts
5. Los Angeles, California
6. New York, New York
7. Miami, Florida
8. Cincinnati, Ohio
9. New Orleans, Louisiana
10. Kansas City, Missouri

When it comes to towns in South Carolina Clemson comes out on top ranked as the 2nd best small town behind Tuscaloosa. Clemson scored 28.21 and is the #29 best football city in America. Clemson score is boosted as being ranked in this survey as the 2nd best program behind Bama. However it gets weird after that with Fayette MS in 3rd. I'm unaware of any college there and a search shows the closest is Alcorn state. 4th was Fargo ND.

Conway #61 18.57

Greenville #63 18.24

Orangeburg #76 17.37

N. Charleston #206 13.22

Charleston #222 12.69

Columbia #242 11.20

Columbia score was compiled using these rankings (125 is average)

147th – Performance level of college football (FBS & FCS) team(s)

224th – Minimum season ticket price for college football game

88th – College football stadium capacity

23rd – college football fan engagement

More fun facts from the survey:

• Kansas City, Missouri, has the best performing NFL team, while Houston, Texas, has the worst.
• Jacksonville, Florida, has the lowest average ticket price for NFL games. The city with the highest average ticket prices for NFL games is a five-way tie between Chicago, Boston, Green Bay, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
• The city with the most accessible NFL stadium is Green Bay, while New York has the least accessible.
• Green Bay also tops the list as the city with the most engaged NFL fans and New York City is at the bottom with the least engaged NFL fans.