In One Ranking, Seattle Not Yet A ‘Best City For Hockey Fans’

Seattle Kraken fans, you’ve been unfairly dissed. Big time.

Seeing a link to “Best cities for hockey fans” is like the folder with your co-workers’ performance reviews mistakenly left on your desk. You’ll feel icky for peeking…later on. Right now, as a Kraken fan, it’s impossible to resist the urge to know, “How’d we do against everyone else?”

Kraken supporters, prepare to feel icky. WalletHub “Ranked 76 U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators of a good hockey city.” Their criteria “ranges from ticket prices to stadium capacity to the performance level of each city’s teams.”

Seattle ranked 24th among the 32 NHL franchises. That’s actually worse than it sounds. WalletHub only ranked U.S. hockey markets. The NHL includes 25 US-based teams, and since the Rangers and Islanders share the New York City market, that means Seattle’s #24 ranking is another way of saying… last.

Here’s the unfair part: many of the 21 metrics used work against the league’s youngest team. For instance, the three-season-old Kraken have no control over their number of championships (zero), division titles (zero), or Hall of Fame coaches (zero).

However, Seattle’s highest U.S. average ticket price, 3rd from the bottom “fan engagement,” and paltry TV ratings lowered its score. Worth noting: how much weight each category is given, and how each category is judged, carries more than a bit of subjectivity. “Fan engagement,” for instance, was calculated “by adding the number of Twitter followers to the number of Facebook ‘Likes’ per capita.” Different measurements, such as how cute Buoy is, would certainly have produced different results.

The top U.S. hockey city as adjudged by WalletHub is Boston. In addition to a thriving college hockey scene, the Bruins have the most regular season wins in NHL history, 20 division titles and six Stanley Cups. The B’s are also the third-most valuable NHL team ($1.9 billion), and have the third-most engaged fans on social media. Pittsburgh and Detroit ranked 2nd and 3rd.

Los Angeles (#21), Nashville (#22), and San Jose (#23) share the basement with Seattle. Again though, for a franchise just past its infancy, the Kraken have built a solid infrastructure both on and off the ice quite quickly. So not too much stock should be placed on these ratings.

By the way, Seattle didn’t fare well in the baseball or football categories, either. The Mariners finished 19th among U.S. MLB markets, the Seahawks 17th in the NFL. The MLS Sounders are the city’s pro sports shining star, ranking #2 among U.S. soccer cities. Women’s pro teams, unfortunately, weren’t ranked by WalletHub.