Cape Girardeau on 'best cities for football fans' list

With the Super Bowl about to kick off Sunday, Feb. 12, personal finance website WalletHub says Cape Girardeau ranks No. 117 out of 249 U.S. cities measured in terms of "best cities for football fans."

Cities included in the survey have at least one college or professional football team with measurement noted across 21 key metrics.

Among the data points noted for college towns by WalletHub:

• On-field performance over the past three seasons. (Southeast Missouri State University is 17-14 over the period and sported a perfect 5-0 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2022.)
• Number of head coaches in the past 10 seasons. (Tom Matukewicz has been SEMO's head coach since the 2014 season. Metric gives higher value to longevity in the position.)
• Fan engagement. (On a per capita population basis, this metric measures the number of Twitter followers and Facebook "likes" on SEMO's official accounts.)

Other noted city rankings

• Pittsburgh: No. 1, home to NFL's Steelers and Atlantic Coast Conference's Pitt Panthers.
• Kansas City, Missouri: No. 10, home to AFC champion Chiefs.
• Philadelphia: No. 15, home to NFC champion Eagles.
• Nashville, Tennessee: No. 24, home to the OVC's Tennessee Tech and NFL franchise Titans.
• Martin, Tennessee: No. 66, home to OVC's University of Tennessee-Martin.
• Carbondale, Illinois: No. 78, home to Southern Illinois University.
• St. Charles, Missouri: No. 96, home to OVC's Lindenwood University.
• Murray, Kentucky: No. 154, home to OVC's Murray State University.

Data Collection

WalletHub said it used the following sources of information to create its rankings: U.S. Census Bureau, Team Marketing Report, ESPN, NCAA, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sports Reference, Forbes, NBC Sports, Fanalytics, plus each team's website and social media accounts.

Of note

Among cities with less than 100,000 in population, Cape Girardeau ranks No. 61, said Miami-based WalletHub.