Dallas Named Best Texas City For Football Fans: Study

DALLAS, TX — With Super Bowl 2018 right around the corner, football fans across the country are looking forward to Sunday's parties and reminiscing on seasons past. While some may have more to brag about that others, football fans in Dallas have a little something extra to boast this year.

It's not team stats or fantasy leagues or the Ezekiel Elliot saga that has Dallasites rejoicing today. In fact, it's not even about the Cowboys. It's the results of a WalletHub study that named Dallas the best city in Texas for football fans. (It's worth noting, however, that NFL team performance did play a role in pulling Dallas to the top. Overall team performance carried a weight of almost nine percent in the rankings.)

The WalletHub study looked at 240 U.S. cities and categorized them across 21 metrics like ticket prices, fan friendliness and the number of college and NFL teams in each area. What they found was that Dallas dominated the Texas charts with ease.

Dallas did well on a national scale, too. Coming in at No. 3, the Big D was eclipsed only by Green Bay and Philadelphia.

Top 10 Best Cities For Football Fans:

1. Green Bay
2. Pittsburgh
3. Dallas
4. Boston
5. New York
6. Los Angeles
7. Glendale
8. Philadephia
9. Oakland
10. Cincinnati

As far as Texas cities go, some unexpected cities made the list. Despite the study's focus on NFL team availability, a number of smaller towns also appeared on the list.

Here's how Texas cities stacked up:

1. Dallas
2. Houston
3. Prairie View
4. Huntsville
5. University Park
6. San Antonio
7. Abeline
8. Fort Worth
9. Nacogdoches
10. Beaumont
11. Denton
12. College Station
13. Austin
14. El Paso
15. Waco
16. San Marcos
17. Lubbock

As far as football superlatives go, Texas did not fare as well. Houston landed in the bottom five for both least engaged NFL fans and least accessible NFL stadiums. College Station, meanwhile, landed in the bottom five with one of the highest minimum season ticket prices for college games.

In a separate shakedown of cities, organized into three categories by city population, the turnout was hardly different. Dallas held down the No. 2 national spot, while all other Texas cities landed at or below the No. 25 mark in each of their respective categories.

To see how the 240 U.S. cities performed, and to see rankings divided by size, click here. You can also see the full WalletHub study and methodology.

Getty Images file photo: Fans tailgate before a Dallas Cowboys take against the Los Angeles Chargers during a Thanksgiving Day game at AT&T Stadium on November 23, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)