Forbes recently did a study on the NBA’s best fans. They use five variables in their algorithm to determine which team has the best fans. The first variable is hometown crowd reach, which is a percentage of local individuals who listened, watched, or attended a game in the last year. The other variables consist of three years worth of television ratings, three years of capacity reached for an attendance based approach, three years of merchandise sales, and social media followers, which is the combination of Twitter followers and Facebook likes. There are also factors that count in behavioral variables such as loyalty and television ratings. Social media reach was calculated as a percent of the city population. Dual city teams had their local population cut in half to account for multiple team options in a single city.
This year, the Miami Heat was calculated to have the best fans in the NBA. Although LeBron James leaving the Miami Heat might have something to do with their high score, the Heat fans have been ranked in the top 5 ever since 2004. With Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Shaquille O’Neal; the team’s merchandise sales have been among the top since 2004. The Heat are ranked 3rd in the social media metric with both the 3rd highest combined Twitter followers/Facebook likes and total percentage of social media followers combined with the population of Miami.
After LeBron left, the teams capacity and merchandise sales still ranked towards the top of the league. To even further prove the team’s momentum, Fox’s Sun Sports signed a network contract with the Miami Heat that pays triple today’s rights fee and is signed through the 2025 season.
The list of the top 10 best NBA fans:
1) Miami Heat
2) Oklahoma City Thunder
3) San Antonio Spurs
4) Chicago Bulls
5) Los Angeles Lakers
6) Boston Celtics
7) Dallas Mavericks
8) Indiana Pacers
9) Portland Trail Blazers
10) Los Angeles Clippers