A new study by Emory University ranked NFL fan bases by a few metrics that make sense, we suppose, and Chiefs fans turned out to be not good.
Loudness, be damned. A new study of NFL fans and team brands for 2018 has concluded that Kansas City Chiefs are actually among the worst overall fan bases in the league.
Michael Lewis is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School who puts out several such studies, rankings, etc. under a banner of Fanalytics. His latest “NFL Fan and Brand Report” breaks down and ranks each NFL team’s fan base on three total metrics:
- Fan Equity – Fan spending based on expected revenue (so it’s more accurate than, say, just adding what Cowboys fans spend overall compared to Jaguars fans).
- Social Equity – A team’s online presence and social fan community/engagement.
- Road Equity – How a team draws when playing road games.
You can find in-depth descriptions for each of these facets in the actual poll itself and the entire article is worth a read.
The top teams are who you might expect given their winning ways in recent years. The Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers fare well in all categories. Meanwhile, the Chiefs rank near the bottom in all three, which means they are No. 30 overall. In fact, only two teams rank worse overall: the L.A. Rams and Tennessee Titans.
The Rams are understandably poor in these rankings considering they just ripped the team away from the taxpaying citizens of St. Louis to the evil lair/headquarters of Stan Kroenke in L.A. It’s surprising that the Chargers aren’t that bad as well given that relocation generally doesn’t help a fan base (it will be interesting to also watch how this affects the Raiders as they transition to Las Vegas.
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As for the Titans, that’s somehow even worse than the Chiefs, and they even won a playoff game just last season. They have a nice young quarterback already in place and should be the class of the AFC South once again but somehow their fan base doesn’t care. Perhaps another strong season in the AFC South would help but that gets much harder with Andrew Luck returning, the Jags looking ready for another strong defensive run and the Texans getting Deshaun Watson healthy.
As for the Chiefs, it’s surprising to see them ranked No. 30. They have one of the most recognizable and accomplished head coaches in the NFL in Andy Reid. They have an exciting young prospect at quarterback along with more offensive weapons than anyone. On defense there’s Justin Houston and Eric Berry along with several others ready to make the leap.
Arrowhead Stadium is also known as being a tough place to play, one in which the crowd becomes a very real factor for opposing offenses to contend with. With a record-setting crowd, you’d think the Chiefs would be among the best in the NFL. Instead, they apparently don’t draw as well as others, come up lacking on social media and even fan spending isn’t that great proportionally to other teams. Perhaps that’s why you never really see a Chiefs player on the biggest selling jerseys list.
A lot can change in time and Patrick Mahomes will be key for the Chiefs in this mode. But for now the fans have come up short.