Which are the liveliest sporting cities?

Sports are the lifeblood of many cities, with sports bars the soul. Millions of sports fans flock to the city on gameday to enjoy the wide range of sports bars, pubs, and clubs on offer.

So when the final buzzer sounds, what better way to round off a win than to hit the city with your family and friends and find a sports bar to catch the highlights reel?

Every city across North America hosts its own flavor of sporting nightlife. While some will leave you spoilt for choice, others might leave you at a loss for gameday plans. So, with that in mind, where is the liveliest city for sports fans?

Betting.com analyzed all 130 unique stadiums across North America’s five major sporting leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, NHL). Using Yelp, data was pulled for restaurants and bars within a 2km radius of any of the stadiums. This meant a list of over 75,000 restaurants and bars across North America. 

Toronto rated North America’s liveliest city

City	Sports Bars and Pubs	Affordability Factor	Total Post Game Spots	Post Game Score
Toronto	643	18.32%	5155	8.74
Chicago	446	20.78%	2302	8.48
New York City	1206	16.51%	11605	8.45
Minneapolis	406	23.15%	2003	8.39
Vancouver	493	16.63%	3593	8.22
Detroit	402	17.93%	1761	7.30
Seattle	471	13.51%	2601	7.13
New Orleans	363	15.98%	1871	6.95
Boston	472	13.25%	2442	6.90
Pittsburgh	362	14.27%	1824	6.44
Denver	548	9.58%	2302	6.41
Portland	383	13.42%	2129	6.38
Baltimore	204	18.64%	1525	6.24
Houston	247	15.33%	1656	6.21
Charlotte	257	17.11%	1148	6.15

Toronto is the liveliest sporting city in North America, with an index score of 8.74. The city is host to several top sports teams, including the Blue Jays, Raptors, Maple Leafs, and Toronto FC. With such a wide array of sports fans visiting the Canadian city, Hogtown is well-served with over 643 sports bars. To celebrate either a Raptors or Leafs win, revelers often head to The Loose Moose near the Scotiabank Arena. For the soccer-inclined, The Football Factory offers TV at every table.

Chicago follows close behind, with an index score of 8.48. While Bears fans are often consoling a loss, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in Chi-town. Chicago Bucket List names a plethora of establishments worth visiting on gameday, from Parlay Lincoln Park, to Joe’s on Weed St, to the family-owned Glascott’s and bar-bite heaven McGee’s Tavern.

In third place, New York City is also ranked among the liveliest cities for sports fans. Catering to hometown fans of the Mets, Knicks, Rangers, and more, New York also plays host to millions of tourists each year – all wanting to watch their respective teams. 

Needless to say, New York City hosts some of the most impressive nightlife offerings in North America, with over 1,000 sports bars and pubs to choose from.

San Antonio scores lowest for liveliness

While the post-game party rocks on in more northern areas of the continent, the same can’t be said for San Antonio, Texas. The southern city places last for liveliest cities, with an index score of just 0.29. Home to just one major league professional sports team – San Antonio Spurs – the city is less equipped for the average sports fan’s needs. Oakland and Kansas City also place in the bottom three, with scores of 0.63 and 0.83 respectively.

Minneapolis ranks best for affordability, while LA breaks the bank

City	Number of Sports Bars and Pubs	Affordability Index
Minneapolis	406	23.15%
St Louis	187	22.41%
Chicago	446	20.78%
Edmonton	70	20.00%
Anaheim	30	20.00%

If you’re looking to party on a budget, Minneapolis is the place for you. Ranking top of the affordability leaderboard, 23.15% of Minneapolis sports bars and pubs are rated affordable. St Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois complete the top three, with 22.41% and 20.78% of sports bars and clubs rated affordable respectively.

City	Number of Sports Bars and Pubs	UnaffordabilityIndex
Los Angeles	182	93.87%
Salt Lake City	79	92.95%
Miami	91	91.71%
Montreal	139	90.53%
Denver	548	90.42%

At the other end of the scale, those with tighter purse strings had best avoid Los Angeles; 93.87% of its 182 sports bars and pubs are rated unaffordable, making it the most unaffordable city in North America for sports fans looking for a night out. Salt Lake City, Utah, and Miami, Florida are almost equally expensive, with 92.95% and 91.71% of sports bars and pubs rated unaffordable.

Baseball fans best served for a post-game party

Across North America, baseball is the best catered-for sport, with baseball fans having no shortage of options for a post-game beer. Meanwhile, MLS fans have the hardest task of a post-game celebration, achieving the lowest index score of major North American sports.

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Methodology

Betting.com analyzed all 130 stadiums across North America’s five major sporting leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB. MLS. NHL). Using Yelp, data was pulled for restaurants and bars within a 2km radius of any of the stadiums, creating a list of over 75,000 restaurants and bars across the US, post-game spots included sports bars, pubs and restaurants.  We also analyzed the available price data on the platform to assess the affordability of the establishments in question. Using these data points we created a ranking for which city has the best availability of sporting nightlife. The ranking system normalized the cities against each other to prevent bias towards the most densely populated metropolitan areas, in the case of affordability the ratio of sports bars rated as affordable was also benchmarked against data set averages.

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