NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Baseball may be one of America’s favorite pastimes, but that doesn’t mean everybody celebrates the game the same way. WalletHub recently released a new study ranking American cities on what the experience of being a baseball fan in that city is like – from price to team success, to stadium accessibility.
WalletHub looked at 334 of the largest U.S. cities with at least one professional or college baseball team and grouped them by division (MLB, MiLB, and NCAA). It’s no surprise that New York City took the number one spot overall as well as the first-ranked MLB city and the 11th-ranked NCAA baseball city.
Two New Mexico cities – Albuquerque and Las Cruces – also made the list. Albuquerque fared pretty well at number 75 and Las Cruces was ranked closer to the bottom at number 331. Albuquerque had an MiLB score of 115 and an NCAA ranking of 146. Las Cruces ranked 120 for MiLB and 256 for NCAA. Both cities had an MLB ranking of 27 due to the fact neither has a major league team.
The study compared the 334 cities across 31 key metrics with each metric holding a different weight and graded on a 100-point scale. Factors like the number of MLB, MiLB, and NCAA teams and fan engagement were considered.
WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Team Marketing Report, ESPN, MLB Advanced Media, Minor League Baseball, YouGov, Sports Reference, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, The National Collegiate Athletic Association, Forbes, Facebook, Twitter, and each team’s website.
The 2023 World Series begins Friday on Fox New Mexico between the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
