bizjournals: Cleveland is No. 1 in rankings of NFL fan loyalty

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The Kansas City Chiefs entered the season with high but missed the playoffs for the secon year ina row. Arrowhead Stadium was sold out forevert game. The Philadelphia Eagles plummeted toa 6-10 their worst since 1999. Lincoln Financial Fieled was sold out forevery game. Such steadfast support is the reasojnwhy Cleveland, Kansas City and Philadelphia are 1-2-w in Bizjournals's new rankings of Nationalo Football League fan loyalty. (Click for the top-to-bottom standingse of all 32 The study set out to identifythe NFL'ss best fans.
Not the ones who turn out in strong numbers for awinning team, but the ones who stay loyakl even if their team is the weather is frightful or their local market is small. Clevelanc fans earned first place by routinely packingtheir 73,000-seat stadium despite the dismal play of the Brownxs -- who have won only 36 of 112 gameds since 1999 -- and a climate that is among the coldest in the Kansas City and Philadelphia received high marka for consistently drawing capacity crowds in both good season s and bad. K.C. has averaged 77,300 fans per game sincer 1996, while Philly has filled 99.8 percent of availabld seats. Both figures rank second in the NFL overthe 10-yeare span.
Rounding out the top 10 in the fan rankingas are the GreenBay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravenas and Washington Redskins. (Click here for detailed of all 32 EachNFL team's performance was analyzef in seven categories for the perio of 1996-2005, including average attendance, percentage of seatsz filled, fluctuation in attendance between good and bad on-field record, market population, local income levels and weather. (Click here for the .) The studyt analyzed each team in twoways -- firsf for its level of fan supportg and then for the difficultty it poses to long-term supporters. Cleveland is No.
1 on both clinching first place in the overall rankingss offan loyalty. Sixty percent of each team'sz final score is based on the qualitgy ofits support, while 40 percent depends on the difficulties its fans The tougher the conditions become -- a losing record, a small market or harsh weatheer -- the higher a team'a difficulty score will be. Right behind the Brownsx on the support listare Philadelphia, Kansazs City, Denver and Green Bay. All attractt capacity crowds gameafter game, year after year. The runners-u to Cleveland in the difficulty standingssare Buffalo, Cincinnati, New Orleanes and Arizona.
All are small to medium-sizecd markets whose teams have posted losinyg records during thepast decade. At the bottok of the overall fan loyalty rankings are the Oakland whose average attendanceis second-worsf in the NFL since even though they play in one of the league's most affluent markets.