The current controversy over the firing of Real Salt Lake coach Mike Petke notwithstanding, Salt Lake City is the third-best city for soccer in America.
That’s according to an analysis by personal finance website WalletHub.com, which analyzed 52 “key metrics” to compare 288 American cities that are home to at least one Division 1 college team or at least one professional team (Major League Soccer, National Women’s Soccer League, United Soccer League).
The metrics analyzed included season ticket prices, attendance, stadium size (as a percentage of population) and championships won.
Salt Lake City ranked third among all cities surveyed, trailing No. 1 Los Angeles and No. 2 Orlando, Fla. Utah's capital city is No. 2 among midsize cities (population 100,000-300,000), trailing No. 1 Orlando.
The definition of “city” was clearly somewhat loose, given that the Salt Lake City analysis includes Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC (which play in Sandy) and the Real Monarchs (which play in Herriman).
Salt Lake City is No. 1 on the list of cities with the lowest season ticket prices in the National Women's Soccer League. And Rio Tinto Stadium helped the overall ranking in two categories — Salt Lake City is No. 1 in NWSL capacity and No. 2 in Major League Soccer capacity.
(Again, that factors the number of seats as a percentage of the population.)
But Salt Lake ranked seventh — third-to-last — among NWSL cities for fan engagement. (That was determined by adding the number of Twitter followers and the number of Facebook “likes” per capita.)
Five other Utah cities appear in the rankings — Orem at No. 116; Logan at No. 174; Provo at No. 199; Ogden at No. 222; and Cedar City at No. 272.
10 BEST SOCCER CITIES IN AMERICA
1. Los Angeles
2. Orlando, Fla.
3. Salt Lake City
4. Portland, Ore.
5. Seattle
6. Atlanta
7. Kansas City, Mo.
8. New York
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Cary, N.C.
BEST MLS SOCCER CITIES
1. Los Angeles
2. Orlando
3. Salt Lake City
4. Portland
5. Seattle
6. Atlanta
7. New York
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Chicago
10. Cincinnati
11. Dallas
12. Boston
13. Columbus
14. Houston
15. Denver
16. San Jose
17. Minneapolis
18. Philadelphia
19. Kansas City
(Los Angeles and New York are each home to two MLS teams. Canadian cities Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were not included in the rankings.)
BEST NWSL SOCCER CITIES
1. Orlando
2. Salt Lake City
3. Portland
4. Seattle
5. New York
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Cary, N.C.
8. Chicago
9. Houston
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