San Francisco, Oakland listed among 'Best Cities for Football Fans'

With the Super Bowl less than a week away, football is on the mind of many sports enthusiasts, especially those who consider themselves a 49ers faithful. And a new analysis suggests, the Bay Area is among the best places to be a fan of the game.

Personal finance website WalletHub compared 245 U.S. cities with at least one college or professional football team and ranked them from a fan's point of view.

Two Bay Area cities made the top 10: San Francisco came in 8th best overall cities to be a football fan and Oakland followed closely behind, coming in 10th.

Pittsburgh, PA, Boston, and Dallas came in top three respectively.

Best Cities for Football Fans         
1. Pittsburgh, PA         
2. Boston, MA         
3. Dallas, TX         
4. Green Bay, WI         
5. New York, NY         
6. New Orleans, LA         
7. Miami, FL         
8. San Francisco, CA         
9. Philadelphia, PA         
10. Oakland, CA

The worst city to be a fan? That would be Brookville, NY. 

On WalletHub's ranking of "Most Engaged NFL Fans," you might not be surprised that Oakland, which was until just recently home base for Raider Nation, came in 5th place. 

Last week, the Raiders formerly completed their move to Las Vegas. 

The analysis looked at more than 20 key metrics, with the data set ranging from the number of NFL and college football teams to average ticket prices. 

WalletHub noted that 62 percent of Americans consider themselves either a fan or "somewhat" of a fan of professional football. 54 percent said the same for college football.

Other figures released by the website further suggests that football is king with the Super Bowl taking the spot as the biggest event in American sports culture.

In its snapshot of "Super Bowl LIV By The Numbers," WalletHub said that the average cost of a ticket to the past five Super Bowls was $5,706. The average cost for a 30-second commercial during this year's game came in at $5.6 million.

50 percent of those asked said they would sacrifice their vacation days for a whole year just to watch their team win the Super Bowl, and more than a third said they would give up their annual bonus.

"Football is by far Americans’ favorite sport to watch, with more popularity than basketball, baseball and soccer combined," WalletHub said. "For many people, football is far more than just a game: it’s a sacred American tradition."