Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a football town. You don’t need a study or chart to tell you that. But if you want one, Wallet Hub’s latest findings confirm that feeling. In a review of the best (and worst) sports cities in America, Pittsburgh was named third overall and first for football.
Wallet Hub reviewed 397 cities and over 50 metrics to determine the best sports towns overall and the top places for each of the major professional sports leagues. Pittsburgh came out on top for football, beating out Green Bay and Dallas, which finished second and third respectively.
The results are no surprise. The Steelers are the lifeblood of the city and have been since the dynasty of the 1970s. The football team reflects the culture of the city better than any other, especially those 70s squads. A then-blue collar city whose residents worked at the mills and watched their Steelers play on Sunday, a physical team that ran the ball and played great defense. College football isn’t as big in Pittsburgh, though it doesn’t help that the Pitt Panthers are going through a difficult year, but the NFL has always reigned king.
In each sport, here’s how Pittsburgh ranked:
Football: 1st
Hockey: 2nd
Baseball: 11th
Soccer: 31st
Basketball: 124th
Across all sports, Pittsburgh finished third nationwide. The top spot was perhaps a surprising selection, Los Angeles named the number one sports town in America. Perhaps those who live out west can speak to it better than I can, but it doesn’t have the same sports-town feel of a Pittsburgh, focused just as much on Hollywood and glitz and glamor. It does help that Los Angeles has a wider variety of sports teams to cheer on, meaning the city graded out highly in every category. Without an NBA team, Pittsburgh isn’t a basketball town, ranking just 124th in that category, which certainly impacted its final ranking. And the Lakers are certainly big in L.A., always having stars from Magic Johnson to Shaquille O’Neal to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James.
Also cracking the top 10 was the city of Philadelphia, which finished seventh. Despite the hardcore Eagles fandom, Philadelphia was named just the 15th-best football town, a surprisingly low result. It ranked the best in baseball, fourth place, as the Phillies just made a deep playoff run before losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS.
Check out the full results at the link here.
