The best cities for gameday experience

Gameday. It’s something all of us North American sports fans look forward to, and no matter if you’re American or Canadian, it’s hard to deny the building excitement now that the NBA and NHL June championship finals are on the horizon.

This season has been as competitive as ever, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics currently duking it out as the favorites to win the NBA, while the Boston Bruins and Vegas Golden Knights stride ahead in the NHL.

Of course, overall victory is still on the table for those teams entering the playoffs, but it got us wondering, just which passionate fans can expect to have the best gameday experience when it comes around?

To calculate this, we looked at all the cities home to the current NBA and NHL teams and scored them out of nine based on the following factors:

• Championships won
• Average ticket price
• Average win percentage
• Total franchise value
• Home attendance percentage
• Average search volume
• Cost of a 12oz beer
• Cost of a hotdog
• Cost of a 16oz soft drink

With these results to hand, we then ranked each city accordingly from highest to lowest for gameday excitement, based on their scores.

So, without further ado, here are the best cities for NBA and NHL gamedays!

The top 5 cities for NBA gamedays

Based on the displays put on by both the Bucks and the Celtics this season, you might assume either one of these teams would take the top spot for best NBA gameday experience. But, in fact, that honor goes to the Atlanta Hawks!

Currently seventh in the NBA standings, the Hawks might have won their only championship way back in 1958, but as one of the original NBA franchises established, they have a long and proud heritage. So what makes Atlanta the best city for NBA gameday?

Well, fans can expect to pay as little as $53.54 for a ticket, one of the cheapest ticket prices in the league, as well as just $5 for a beer and $3 for a soft drink or hotdog! So, while the Hawks might not be everyone’s go-to NBA team, an Atlanta game day is certainly one of the cheapest.

As for our next best gameday city, that spot is held by 2023 championship favorites, the Boston Celtics. Putting on a dominant showing leading up to the playoffs, and currently second in the overall rankings, Celtic fans have a real reason to be excited at championship victory, considering that they have already won 17!

Besides the reasonable prospect of being crowned league champions for 2023, Celtic fans also rank third highest for gameday attendance at 100 per cent and support the fifth-most expensive franchise, with the Celtics currently being worth $3.92 billion. So, regardless of a game’s outcome, the atmosphere at a Celtic’s game is set to be electric.

Next, coming in at third and fourth, we have Dallas and San Antonio. Home to the Mavericks and Spurs respectively, and despite ranking low in the tables this season, both cities offer excellent home attendance, with Dallas having the best at 105.1 per cent and San Antonio holding a low, but still respectable, 92 per cent.

Interestingly, despite having lower stats in many areas, Dallas still ranks higher than San Antonio, even though San Antonio teams have won five championships compared to Dallas’ single win and have a lower ticket price of $69.49 compared to $86.98. At the end of the day, it seems that Dallas simply has the more popular team, with 22,790,000 searches overall.

Finally, our fifth best gameday city is Los Angeles. Home to the LA Lakers and Clippers, who are both currently sitting around the middle of the table, LA fans can always look forward to a higher-than-average match-win chance, which sits at 54.54 per cent.

Combine this with the third most expensive franchise value in the 2023 league, which is currently $5.085 billion dollars, and the cost of $118.34 for a ticket certainly seems worth it!

The top 5 cities for NHL gamedays

Now that we’ve looked at NBA gameday cities, let’s now turn our attention to the NHL.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Toronto, home to the always popular Toronto Maple Leafs, came in at our number one gameday spot. Although the Maple Leafs have the most expensive ticket price available at $145.6, they also have the second biggest franchise value, which currently stands at $2 billion.

Toronto fans can also look forward to regular wins thanks to the Leafs having a 63.2 per cent win rate, the fourth-highest in our rankings, as well as being confident that their team could very well win this year’s championship. They might not be at the top of the tables right now, but with 13 championships under their belt, this could very well change soon.

As for our second-best NHL city, all eyes can turn to Calgary. Offering mid-priced tickets at $67.67 and holding a 55.6 per cent win ratio, the Calgary Flames certainly know how to deliver on an action-packed but reasonably priced game day.

And despite not being that high on the tables, the Calgary Flames continue to be one of the most popular NHL teams, boasting a surprising search volume of 10,928,000, our seventh-highest overall.

Next, in our third and fourth positions, we have Tampa and Edmonton. Always ready to deliver a thrilling game, the Tampa Bay Lightning have the highest win percentage of any NHL team in our rankings, currently sitting at 70.3 per cent, while the Edmonton Oilers are the third most popular team below the Maple Leafs and Canadiens, with a search volume of 15,418,000.

Tampa fans can also expect a full stadium turnout, thanks to their 100 per cent home attendance, while Edmonton boasts the fourth-lowest soft drinks prices and fifth-lowest hotdog prices, which are priced at $3.84 and $5.13 respectively.

Finally, our fifth best gameday city is Denver. Their team, the Colorado Avalanche, are currently dominating the Central Division, and fans know they’re in for a treat thanks to their team’s 62.4 per cent win rate, the fifth-highest overall. And when you consider that their franchise value is just $0.86, Denver fans are certainly getting their money’s worth!

The bottom cities for gameday in the NBA and NHL

While some cities are certainly the go-to locations for maximizing your enjoyment on gameday, what about those cities that fell short on our rankings?

For the NBA, the three lowest cities for a good gameday experience were Washington DC, Orlando, and New York City. New York City, in particular, can be a strain on fans' funds, with tickets costing $128.07, the second-highest overall, while Orlando teams have the lowest win percentage at 35.9 per cent. As for DC, the capital has the worst home attendance at 84.4 per cent.

And as for cities favoring the NHL, Seattle, Newark, and Anaheim were ranked at the bottom of our table. Seattle has won zero championships yet still has the second-highest ticket prices at $130.85! Newark, on the other hand, has the most expensive beer at $11.04, and to round it up, Anaheim has the worst overall win percentage, which is currently 38.3 per cent.

And with that wrapped up, you should now have a pretty good idea of which cities host the best gameday experiences. Of course, a low price of admission and current win percentage is no guarantee of championship victory. There have already been plenty of upsets this season and anything could change once the playoffs are underway!

And if you want insights into just who might win the championship, as well as odds on all things NBA, NHL, and sports related, then head over to Betway to see what deals we have on offer.

Methodology:

This dataset contains two different tables.

The first table ranks 32 cities across the USA and Canada, based on how passionate they are about the NHL. These 32 cities were chosen as they have an NHL team in the 2023 league.

The second table ranks 28 cities across the USA and Canada, based on how passionate they are about the NBA. These 28 cities were chosen as they have at least 1 NBA team in the 2023 league.

Nine different factors were used to rank each city, and once the factors were collected, they were then normalised to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. The normalised values were then summed, to give each city a total score out of 9.

The cities were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores. The factors used are as follows:

• Championship won – the number of championships teams from that city have previously won.
• Average ticket prices – the average ticket price to see a game in that city.
• Average win per cent - the average number of games teams in that city have won at home in the last 5 years.
• Franchise value – the overall value of the teams in that city.
• Home attendance per cent – the average percentage of total stadium capacity that each team reached in the last season.
• Search Volume – the number of Google searches for each team over the past 12 months.
• 12oz beer cost - the average price for a 12oz beer in each city's stadium.
• Hotdog cost - the average price for a hotdog in each city's stadium.
• 16oz soft drink - the average price for a 16oz soft drink in each city's stadium.

The factors were then indexed as follows:

• Championship won – high values get a high score. Low values get a low score.
• Average ticket prices – high values get a low score. Low values get a high score.
• Average win per cent - high values get a high score. Low values get a low score.
• Franchise value – high values get a high score. Low values get a low score.
• Home attendance per cent – high values get a high score. Low values get a low score.
• Search Volume – high values get a high score. Low values get a low score.
• 12oz beer cost – high values get a low score. Low values get a high score.
• Hot dog cost – high values get a low score. Low values get a high score.
• 16oz soft drink – high values get a low score. Low values get a high score.

The data gathered is correct as of 03/31/2023. The most recent data possible was used in compiling this dataset. Where data wasn't available, it is indicated with "-" and given a score of 0. All currency figures are in USD.