NFL Fans in the Smallest Markets Are Buying the Most Merchandise

The NFL Fans in the Smallest Markets Are Buying the Most Merchandise report published by Front Office Sports delves into the abstract dimension of NFL fandom. Utilizing Nielsen’s Scarborough NFL Fandom Index, the study assesses the league's 30 markets based on eight key metrics to determine the level of basketball, baseball, and football enthusiasm in each area.

The metrics include apparel purchases, event attendance, streaming, social media following, TV viewership, radio listening, betting intent, and overall interest level.

The top-performing markets for NFL fandom include Buffalo, Kansas City, Green Bay, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. Contrarily, the league's largest media markets, Los Angeles and New York, ranked last. Furthermore, the NFL's smallest markets have outperformed their size in terms of fandom. This trend is evident when analyzing the top 10 fan-apparel-purchasing markets.

Outside of Philadelphia and Detroit, no market made it to Nielsen’s 20 largest television designated market areas (DMAs). Over half of the markets on the list fall outside of the top 30 DMAs.

Kansas City and Buffalo emerged as the leading cities for apparel purchases with index scores of 280 and 272, respectively. This indicates that residents in these markets are nearly three times more likely to have purchased NFL apparel within the last year compared to the average U.S. adult. Notably, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen jerseys consistently rank among the top 10 best-selling across the league in the NFL Players Association’s annual Top 50 Player Sales List.

This data suggests that the fervor for NFL teams in smaller markets transcends standard merchandise, extending to highly sought-after player jerseys.

The findings from this study come at a time when the NFL and its individual clubs are aggressively pursuing international growth. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed confidence in the league's potential expansion outside the USA. The response to this ranking, which garnered hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments, suggests that domestic fans remain highly invested in the NFL, irrespective of their location.