Our rankings are based on a combination of more than 540,000 data points collected by SBJ’s editorial research team and input from more than 120 executives from across sports business through Feb. 28, 2026.
How the methodology has evolved
In the inaugural 2023 ranking, we used the U.S. Census Metropolitan Statistical Area designations to define our markets.
Based on feedback from the sports tourism sector, rights holders and sports business executives who travel frequently, subsequent BSBC analysis dug deeper into those markets. We were told that because many MSAs have two or more distinct entities, such as destination marketing organizations and venue operators, competing with one another over RFPs, we should view each one the way they view each other: separately.
Industry executives suggested this rule of thumb: If a city has its own convention space and/or sports venue and a DMO staff that is specifically tasked with luring sporting events and conferences to that specific town, then we should consider it to be a stand-alone market.
As a result, Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington and Frisco are now ranked separately, as are Miami and Fort Lauderdale; Los Angeles and Orange County; and New York City and Northern New Jersey.
Consistent with the U.S. Census MSA definition, San Francisco and Oakland are treated as one market, separate from the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., MSA, which is home to the San Francisco 49ers and Levi’s Stadium.
A second, although minor, change from our original algorithm involves the distance from downtown to a major airport. Multiple rights holders told us the differences in sports business and event travel is negligible among major cities. Event visitors are likely to land at the airport and head to the event venue or hotel, and marketers, who are trying to visit as many leads or clients as possible in a city, have already mapped out their itinerary.
Colorado Springs, Colo., is the only city on our list that does not have an international airport within 45 minutes of downtown.
Previous methodologies
The 2024 Best Sports Business Cities franchise focused on the U.S. cities that had had the most recent success at attracting and hosting sporting events, based on our database of nearly 1,500 events that took place and/or were awarded from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2023. (The 2026 study counted nearly 1,700 events). Orlando finished No. 1 among markets with a major league team. Fort Worth, Texas was No. 1 among markets that did not have a major league team.
Last year, SBJ ranked the country’s 25 strongest soccer business markets. SBJ built a database of U.S. markets that have been home to at least one professional or NCAA Division I soccer team Jan. 1, 2015, through Feb. 28, 2025, and added the permanent or transient major soccer event (such as FIFA, UEFA, Copa, Concacaf, or other international friendlies) that each specific market hosted during that same period, along with all available attendance data for those teams and events; social media followers data for the teams; the by-market presence of league or governing body-level sponsors (FIFA, UEFA, MLS, NWSL, USL, U.S. Soccer, NCAA and multiple regional events), the tenure of those sponsor-league relationships, and the presence of soccer facilities built or significantly renovated since 2010.
Los Angeles was our top soccer market.
Opportunity, Stability and Insights
As in the past, approximately one-third of the algorithm is based on what we termed “opportunity,” which factors in the presence of sports sponsors, agencies, media partners and other major industry vendors that are headquartered or have significant operations in each city. The additions of new teams/events and companies doing business with the sports industry were quantified in this section. Only sponsors with North American sports deals were counted, and cities received extra credit every time a regionally based brand had a top-tier local deal, such as venue naming rights, playing field/court sponsorship, team uniform patch or title sponsorship of a major event that is permanently held in the region.
SBJ’s directories listing Facility Naming Rights; Jersey and Helmet Sponsors; College Football On-Field Logos; and College Uniform Sponsors served as the primary sources for the sponsor data.
Approximately one-third of the calculations measure each city’s stability in sports. This factors in the number and sustained tenure of major and minor league teams and permanent events (such as a college football bowl game), as well as the number of Division I college athletic programs. For each of these, attendance and venue capacity data was used for the eight most recently completed seasons in which pandemic-related restrictions were not a factor. This is where penalties were assessed for the loss of teams and companies doing business with the sports industry.
This portion also factors in the city’s recent history of hosting and/or winning bids to host major sporting events that do not have a permanent home. We built a database of more than 1,700 events that have taken place and/or been awarded since Jan. 1, 2017, through Feb. 28, 2026. Our data includes permanent events (e.g., Indianapolis 500, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, U.S. Open Tennis Championships); transient (bid-upon) events (e.g., all-star games, annual drafts, WrestleMania, NCAA postseason tournaments); every NCAA Division I, II and III postseason bid through its current cycle that runs through the 2027-28 academic year, plus any other future NCAA and College Football Playoff site that has been announced; NAIA championships through 2027; events held/awarded by all 50 U.S. Olympic/Paralympic governing bodies (37 summer sports, eight winter, five Pan American sports); major events/tournaments staged by national youth sports organizations (e.g., Pop Warner Little Scholars, Perfect Game, AAU); and more than 300 industry B2B gatherings (e.g., MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Green Sports Alliance Summit, league/conference offseason meetings and SBJ conferences).
Each event was weighted on a scale of 1-10, with an event such as the Super Bowl being a 10 and an event that has few spectators and minimal media exposure being a 1. The 50 Olympic national governing bodies provided a tiered designation for their events.
Each city’s total team and event attendance (when available) was indexed against its population and median household income. Venue age was factored in, with extra credit given for new and updated buildings. Cities also could gain or lose points for approving or rejecting referendums conceived to help fund venue construction and/or attract events.
Extra credit was given for the presence of sports-related tourist options, such as halls of fame.
The final portion of the algorithm is based on insights from more than 120 industry executives who were promised anonymity for their answers to the deliberately broad and vague question, “What is the best place to conduct sports business?” Dozens of those conversations also resulted in insight into which cities were the most difficult in which to do business.
It is worth noting that a 2022 beta version of our algorithm included credit for on-field success. We deemed that measure to be not meaningful, a decision that was backed by industry executives.
The aggregation of this data was then indexed against primary economic metrics that are important to the rights holders, such as hotel and meal costs, and lodging taxes and fees. The food and beverage figures are the 2025-26 federal per diem rate determined by the U.S. General Services Administration for approximately 2,600 U.S. counties. Companies use the per-diem rates to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses incurred while on official travel.
Other sources used for the ranking include the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; CBRE Hotels Research Hotel Horizons reports; CoStar; iSpot.TV; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting; The Stoll Report on State-Level Funding; Zoomph; April’s U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics; and U.S. General Services Administration.
