Photo by Ryan Sepulveda on Unsplash
The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2025’s Best & Worst Cities for Basketball Fans, as well as expert commentary.
To find the best cities for professional- and college-basketball fans, WalletHub compared more than 290 of the largest cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from the performance level of each city’s NBA and NCAA Division 1 basketball teams to ticket prices to stadium accessibility.
Basketball is the second most popular sport in the U.S., losing only to football. The sport is worth an incredible amount of money, too, and the NBA has an annual revenue of over $11.3 billion. The average NBA franchise is worth $4.4 billion, and teams draw additional revenue from TV partnerships, merchandise sales and advertising on NBA team uniforms.
NBA Teams
Best-Performing
- 1. Boston, MA
- 2. Phoenix, AZ
- 3. Denver, CO
- 4. Milwaukee, WI
- 5. Philadelphia, PA
Worst-Performing
- 23. Washington, DC
- 24. Houston, TX
- 25. Portland, OR
- 26. San Antonio, TX
- 27. Detroit, MI
College Basketball Teams
Best-Performing
- 1. Spokane, WA
- 2. West Lafayette, IN
- 3. Tucson, AZ
- 4. Storrs, CT
- 5. Princeton, NJ
Worst-Performing
- 290. Lexington, VA
- 291. Green Bay, WI
- 292. Dover, DE
- 293. San Luis Obispo, CA
- 294. Itta Bena, MS
Click here to read about the results.
