Survey names New York better baseball city for fans than St. Louis … – Belleville News-Democrat

Wallethub may have struck out with its latest “Best Baseball Cities” report.

It declared St. Louis the No. 2 baseball city in the country for fan-friendliness. It named New York City – what the what? – the most fan friendly baseball city.

Factors other than professional baseball clearly were influential; St. Louis was ranked first for Major League Baseball friendliness, but 159th out of 363 cities for minor league baseball and 171st for NCAA sports.

“WalletHub crunched the numbers to find (the best baseball city), comparing more than 360 of the largest U.S. cities with at least one professional or college baseball team, grouped by division,” the company said in its announcement. “In each city, we looked at 31 key indicators of baseball fan-friendliness. They range from performance level of team(s) to average ticket price per game to stadium accessibility.”

Wallethub provides credit scores and reports and is owned by Evolution Finance. It says the worst city for baseball is Kissimmee, Florida, near where the Atlanta Braves hold spring training at Walt Disney World.

The best baseball cities are, according to Wallethub:

1. New York

2. St. Louis

3. Los Angeles

4. San Francisco

5. Arlington, Texas

6. Boston

7. Atlanta

8. Cincinnati

9. Chicago

10. Pittsburgh