The nation’s capital has come out on top as the best city for sports travel, according to a survey commissioned by Hotels.com.
The online accommodation booking website teamed up with ticket website SeatGeek to look at the 25 most popular sports cities based on total tickets purchased in 2014.
It analyzed destinations for sports popularity – based on number of tickets sold, average ticket prices, destination popularity gleaned from the 2014 Hotels.com Hotel Price Index results and average hotel rates.
DC ranked first due to its combination of popularity with sports fans and affordability in average ticket price and hotel accommodation.
“While places like New York and Boston have rich sports histories and some of the most famous stadiums in the country, they both ranked lower in our study due to higher average ticket prices and hotel rates paid by consumers in 2014,” said Taylor L. Cole of Hotels.com.
If you’re planning to watch your favorite team on the road this year, Washington, D.C. offers the best of both worlds when it comes to sports travel.”
Detroit came second, followed by Los Angeles in third, which sold more tickets than any other US city for sporting events in 2014.
The most costly city was unsurprisingly New York, where fans paid an average of $395 for a ticket to a game and one night accommodation.
“You might think it’s always difficult to score an affordable ticket to see winning teams play, but you’d be surprised,” said Connor Gregoire, an analyst at SeatGeek.
“The top five cities in the rankings have all seen their baseball clubs qualify for the postseason in the last two years and are home to numerous other successful professional and college teams, but none are even among the top 10 most expensive cities by average ticket price,” he added.
