They haven’t had much in the way of playoff success to cheer for the last few decades, but that hasn’t stopped Cowboys fans from being a passionate, if not always sane lot.
And according to one study, they’re the best in the league.
Via the Dallas Morning News, Emory Sports Marketing Analytics’ 2015 NFL fan equity rankings put Dallas fans at the top of the heap.
“We focused on using hard data to determine which NFL team had the most avid, engaged, passionate and supportive fans, the website’s Manish Tripathi said. “By hard data we mean data on actual fan behavior. In particular, we are focused on market outcomes like attendance, prices or revenues.
“We use fifteen years of data on NFL team performance, ticket prices, market populations, median incomes, won-loss records and multiple other factors. We create statistical models of box office revenue, and then see which teams over- and under- perform the model’s predictions.”
While that feels like “which fan base is more easily sold to,” there’s no doubt between the scoreboard and all the associated glory hole, that the Cowboys are great at marketing. There are other places with louder fans, or fans willing to sit in crappier weather, or fans willing to endure decades of ineptitude without losing their passion.
But by the measure used in this study, the Cowboys’ fans are the best, followed by the Patriots, Giants, Ravens, and Jets.
The Dolphins were last on the list, with the Browns, Raiders, Jaguars and Bills making up the bottom five.
Are they right? I’m sure you’ll let us know in the comments.