On Sunday evening, millions of people across the nation will tune in to their television sets and electronic devices to watch the 59th iteration of the Super Bowl, a sacred American tradition for many fans.
Even though the Dallas Cowboys don’t have any skin in the game this year, many football fans in the DFW metroplex will go all out for the biggest American football game of the year as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans. After all, Dallas is the second-best city in the U.S. for football fans, according to a recent study by WalletHub.
The study compared 250 U.S. cities based on 21 weighted metrics, including the number of NFL teams; the performance level of the teams over the last three seasons; the number of NFL Championships and NFL Division Championships; the franchise value; the average ticket price for an NFL game; fan engagement, measured by number of team’s social media followers per capita; the number of coaches over the last 10 seasons; stadium capacity; attendance at games; and the team’s popularity index.
Similar metrics were applied to each city’s college football teams, which accounted for 25% of the overall score.
This data shows Dallas was ranked No. 2 out of 48 large cities, following right behind No. 1 Pittsburgh and just before No. 3 Boston. Kansas City and New York City, respectively, rounded out the top five best cities for football fans.
Pittsburgh owned the No. 1 spot because the Steelers “have some of the most engaged football fans in the country in terms of social media likes and followers per capita. Pittsburgh has some of the most loyal fans, too, as evidenced by ticket revenues, social media engagement, and the home team’s ability to outperform its roster’s payroll,” according to WalletHub.
The Steelers have not won a Super Bowl Game since 2009, but they are tied with the New England Patriots for the most Super Bowl wins, with six.
Dallas received its high ranking at No. 2 in part because the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world, worth $10.1 billion. The Cowboys, who have five Super Bowl titles, are tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the second-most Super Bowl wins.
The Cowboys have claimed 26 NFC East Division Championships. They are popular in terms of ticket sales and fan engagement, even though they have not played in a Super Bowl matchup since winning the Big Game in 1996.
Green Bay, home of the Packers and the legendary 81,441-seat Lambeau Field, was ranked in third place, largely due to the team’s rabid fans, who happily don classic “cheesehead” headgear to honor the nation’s only community-owned pro sports team. The team’s fans are the most engaged and second-most loyal in the country, according to WalletHub.
The franchise has four Super Bowl titles to its name.
As football fans in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Green Bay, and all across the nation settle in to watch Super Bowl LIX — a rematch of the same teams from Super Bowl LVII in 2023 — some 113.7 million will be hosting or attending a Super Bowl party, while another 17.6 million will watch the game at a bar or restaurant, according to WalletHub.
Super Bowl Sunday is the busiest day of the year for pizza shops, but Americans will also consume 1.45 billion chicken wings, 304 million pounds of avocados, 11.2 million pounds of potato chips, and 10 million pounds of ribs, along with other traditional Super Bowl treats such as cookies, brownies, dips, and plenty of beer to wash it all down. Some 54 million cases of beer are typically sold on Super Bowl Sunday alone.
Here are a few more Super Bowl fun facts you can recite to impress friends and family, courtesy of WalletHub:
- The average cost of a ticket to the last five Super Bowls was $7,584.
- The highest price ever paid for a Super Bowl ticket was $45,000.
- Twelve NFL franchises have never won a Super Bowl.
- This is the 11th time New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl.
- This year’s Big Game is expected to bring $500 million to the local economy in New Orleans.
- The average Super Bowl LIX tourist will spend about $297 on food and drink over four days.
- The average calories for a football party feast is 6,000.
- Super Bowl Sunday is the second-highest food consumption day in America after Thanksgiving.
- An estimated 68 million adults are likely to bet on the Super Bowl.
- Approximately $1.7 billion will be legally wagered on this year’s Super Bowl, up 30% from last year.
- The average cost of a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl LIX broadcast is $7 million.
- For 17% of viewers, the commercials are the best part of the Super Bowl broadcast.
- 35% of survey respondents said they would be willing to give up drinking for a year for the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl in person.
- About 83,000 fans are expected to attend Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome.
- The number of people who will miss work the day after the Super Bowl is 16.1 million, amounting to about $9.3 billion in lost productivity.