BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Ravens have established themselves as a dominant and ferocious team, and now their fans have been recognized among the most influential supporters in the National Football League.
In a new study, the New York-based personal finance technology company SmartAsset has uncovered the NFL teams with the most die-hard fans. The Ravens faithful landed in the top 10 at number eight.
“This is the first year we completed our analysis of the NFL teams with the most die-hard fans,” said Kara Gibson, a spokesperson for SmartAsset, which uses financial modeling to power advice on major monetary decisions. “Our study looks at attendance rates and win percentages over a five-year period from 2011 to 2015 as well as average ticket and concession prices from 2015.”
The analysis found that the Ravens have lost some of their mojo since Ray Lewis retired after their 2012 Super Bowl victory over the 49ers.
However, with an average ticket price of $100.19 and average concessions at $21.25, Ravens fans pay the eighth-highest ticket prices and face the third-highest concession prices. Despite those costs, the team still boasts a 100 percent attendance rate at its games played at M&T Bank Stadium.
“We assumed that fans who are willing to pay more for the experience of watching their team in person can be considered more die-hard,” Gibson said.
When compiling the statistics, SmartAsset noted the face-value price of a single ticket to a game on average. It did not factor in premium ticket prices.
For concession prices, the study considered the total price of the cheapest beer and soft drink available at the stadium, plus the cost of a hotdog, according to Gibson.
The attendance rate used in the analysis represented the average percentage of seats that were filled at home games over a five-year period from 2011 to 2015. Some teams had an attendance rate of more than 100 percent because the advertised maximum attendance numbers didn’t include standing room only tickets or extra seats that may have been added to luxury box areas.
The dedication factor used is the difference between a team’s attendance rate and its win percentage which is meant to measure how dedicated a team’s fans are, or how much they continue to show up to games even when their team is less likely to win. Teams with a higher dedication factor score, did better.
“After ranking each team on each of the four metrics, we then gave each team an average rank based on those metrics,” Gibson said. “We applied a score between 0 and 100 based on that average ranking. The highest-ranking team got a score of 100 and the lowest-ranking team got a score of 0.”
The Chicago Bears ranked first while the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers ranked second through fifth.
The Washington Redskins and the Indianapolis Colts tied for sixth while the remainder of the Top 10 included the Ravens, Houston Texans, and the New York Jets. The Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos ranked in the bottom 10 from thirty-second to twenty-second, respectively.