June 13 (UPI) — A 2018 study found that Los Angeles and Orlando are among to top cities in the United States for soccer fans.
The personal finance website WalletHub released the study on Wednesday. WalletHub compared about 300 cities with at least one college or professional soccer team across six divisions with 63 metrics. They used data ranges including minimum seasons-ticket price for a game to accessibility to number of championships.
Seattle, Portland, Ore., and New York rounded out the top five cities for soccer fans in the U.S. Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Mo., Atlanta and Chicago ranked inside the top 10.
The study listed Dover, Del. as the worst soccer city, ranked at No. 292. Grand Forks, N.D., Youngstown, Ohio, Hampton, Va., and Las Cruces, N.M. also ranked in the bottom five of the rankings.
Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Seattle and Portland had the best-performing Major League Soccer teams. Philadelphia, Chicago, Orlando, Houston and Minneapolis had the worst-performing teams in MLS.
Orlando, Chicago, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Denver had the lowest minimum season-ticket price for an MLS game, while San Jose, Calif., Kansas City, Portland, Atlanta and New York had the highest prices.
Minneapolis also leads the field when it comes to MLS stadium capacity, followed by Salt Lake City, Orlando, Atlanta and Seattle. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago and New York facilities can handle the fewest amount of MLS fans.
Orlando and Atlanta fans are also among the most engaged supporters of MLS, while Chicago MLS fans rank as the least engaged.
WalletHub also extrapolated data based on city size. While Los Angeles led the pack of large cities, Orlando beat out Salt Lake City and Cary, N.C. in the midsize city tier as the best city for soccer fans. Piscataway, N.J. ranked No. 1 among small cities, ahead of Bethlehem, Pa., Edinburg, Texas, Harrisburg, Pa. and Charlottesville, Va.
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