March Madness – 2016’s Best & Worst Cities for Basketball Fans

To Americans, March can mean one of three things: losing an hour of sleep, the arrival of spring, or several chaotic weeks of betting, shouting and high-fiving in front of multiple TV screens — at least to the more than 67 million adults crazed about basketball for that last one. If the title of this report didn’t give it away, March Madness is upon us once again.

But WalletHub is not here to bet with you on the seed that’s likely to bag the biggest prize in college basketball. As much as they’d like to share their prediction of the victor, they’ll refrain because they care about your wallets first and foremost. After all, it’s you who spend tens of billions of dollars in the name of basketball, wagering $9 billion alone on the 2015 tournament. And WalletHub can only expect that figure to go up again this year.

With March Madness in full swing, WalletHub crunched the numbers to find the best spots in America to love on your favorite sport. They compared 297 of the largest cities based on 18 key metrics, ranging from the performance level of each city’s NBA and NCAA Division 1 basketball teams to ticket prices to stadium accessibility. Check out the city by city rankings and the March Madness By the Numbers infographic for more cool stats on one of the biggest sporting events of the year.