WalletHub compared 397 U.S. cities to compile its Best Sports Cities in 2023 list, and Miami emerged at the top of the rankings, securing the lead spot in Florida and the sixth position overall.
The evaluation considered more than 50 metrics associated with the nation's five most popular sports: football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey. After crunching the numbers and weighing hundreds of data points, the study concluded the greatest sports cities in America are Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, New York, Dallas, and Miami, in that order. Tampa also represents Florida on the list, ranked 28th.
The Magic City eked out Philadelphia for the sixth spot, in part by outranking Philly in the football category.
The ranking is no surprise to locals but will likely be met with many unconvinced keyboard warriors on social media, as Miami has received a notoriously bad reputation over the years as a sports town.
Dating back a decade, the Magic City caught flack for a small group of fans prematurely leaving the 2013 NBA Finals' Game 6 in which Ray Allen hit a miraculous shot to send the match into overtime and pave the way for the Heat to secure a second-straight championship. Miami's bona fides as a sports town have since been undercut by purported fair-weather fandom and visuals of an empty Marlins Park each summer — a bad rap the WalletHub study gives a stiff arm.
Aside from the online narrative, Miami for decades has filled stadiums and arenas across several sports, even when teams had lackluster years. For one, the Miami Heat have consistently placed in the top 8 in attendance for the entire league.
Source: WalletHub
Methodology
Before we dive into what WalletHub says Miami's strongpoints are as a sports town, let's set the stage and have it be known where they're coming up with their conclusions.WalletHub, a personal finance company by day, assessed the best sports cities by consolidating its previous rankings from individual sports categories, with each assigned a weight based on the percentage of U.S. adults following that sport. Football held the highest weight at 54 percent, followed by basketball at 16 percent, baseball at 13 percent, soccer at 11 percent, and hockey at six percent. The underlying rankings were based on team performance (e.g. number of championships), ticket prices, online fan presence (social media engagement and number of followers), and stadium attendance, among other factors.
The study calculated the weighted average across all sports categories, and the resulting scores were used to rank the 397 U.S. cities, with a subcategory for population size (large, midsize, small).
Breaking Down the Rankings
It's the age-old sports debate — is Miami a football or basketball town? According to WalletHub, the answer is basketball by a razor-thin margin.WalletHub ranks Miami as a sports city as follows:
- 7th – Football
- 6th – Basketball
- 26th – Baseball
- 7th – Soccer
Another glaring factor to consider is the jolt of attention and enthusiasm Lionel Messi's signing with Inter Miami has brought to local soccer fans. Miami is listed as America's seventh best soccer city, a notion that was unfathomable just a few months ago but now seems like a lowball ranking after what the town has experienced and shown up for in Messi's time with Inter.
They hate us because they ain't us, but the math is still math — Miami is an elite sports town.
