The Cleveland Browns stumbled to a 6-10 record last year, their third straight losing season. Browns Stadium was sold out for every game.
The Kansas City Chiefs entered the season with high hopes, but missed the playoffs for the second year in a row. Arrowhead Stadium was sold out for every game.
The Philadelphia Eagles plummeted to a 6-10 mark, their worst since 1999. Lincoln Financial Field was sold out for every game.
Such steadfast support is the reason why Cleveland, Kansas City and Philadelphia are 1-2-3 in Bizjournals's new rankings of National Football League fan loyalty. (Click here for the top-to-bottom standings of all 32 teams.)
The study set out to identify the NFL's best fans. Not the ones who turn out in strong numbers for a winning team, but the ones who stay loyal even if their team is losing, the weather is frightful or their local market is small.
Cleveland fans earned first place by routinely packing their 73,000-seat stadium despite the dismal play of the Browns — who have won only 36 of 112 games since 1999 — and a climate that is among the coldest in the league.
Kansas City and Philadelphia received high marks for consistently drawing capacity crowds in both good seasons and bad. K.C. has averaged 77,300 fans per game since 1996, while Philly has filled 99.8 percent of available seats. Both figures rank second in the NFL over the 10-year span.
Rounding out the top 10 in the fan rankings are the Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins. (Click here for detailed profiles of all 32 teams.)
Each NFL team's performance was analyzed in seven categories for the period of 1996-2005, including average attendance, percentage of seats filled, fluctuation in attendance between good and bad seasons, on-field record, market population, local income levels and weather. (Click here for the study's methodology.)
The study analyzed each team in two ways — first for its level of fan support and then for the difficulty it poses to long-term supporters. Cleveland is No. 1 on both lists, clinching first place in the overall rankings of fan loyalty.
Sixty percent of each team's final score is based on the quality of its support, while 40 percent depends on the difficulties its fans face. The tougher the conditions become — a losing record, a small market or harsh weather — the higher a team's difficulty score will be.
Right behind the Browns on the support list are Philadelphia, Kansas City, Denver and Green Bay. All attract capacity crowds game after game, year after year.
The runners-up to Cleveland in the difficulty standings are Buffalo, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Arizona. All are small to medium-sized markets whose teams have posted losing records during the past decade.
At the bottom of the overall fan loyalty rankings are the Oakland Raiders, whose average attendance is second-worst in the NFL since 1996, even though they play in one of the league's largest, most affluent markets.
