Home Of Ferris State Hockey Earns Praise As Big Rapids Ranks As Nation's 12th-Best Hockey City
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Big Rapids, Mich. - The home of Ferris State University's NCAA Division I men's ice hockey program, Big Rapids, has been tabbed as the nation's 12th-best hockey city in a study conducted recently by WalletHub.
WalletHub rated 74 U.S. cities according to 18 metrics that included ticket price, stadium accessibility, team's performance level and fan engagement. Big Rapids came in 12th overall and placed second among all cities in the state of Michigan behind only "Hockeytown" itself in Detroit, which was seventh in the listing.
Big Rapids was one of only a few true "college towns" among the top 15 nationally as a majority of the top 15 in the rankings were dominated by larger metropolitan areas such as Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa, Boston, St. Paul, Detroit, Denver, Chicago and Anaheim among others.
"Hockey is a big part of the fabric of the Big Rapids and Ferris State community," said FSU head coach Bob Daniels. "The atmosphere in our arena on game nights is second to none in college hockey. Our players always have appreciated the rabid support from our fan base and the home-ice advantage it gives our team."
Pittsburgh, home of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Penguins, ranked first overall. The analysis of hockey fever in 74 U.S. cities was conducted by WalletHub, an online web source.
Big Rapids was tops among all member schools of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and among the top cities home to NCAA Division I hockey programs across the country.
The West Michigan location ranked ahead of such larger places as Buffalo, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, Columbus, Minneapolis, Omaha, Rochester, Nashville, Washington, DC, and more.
Overall, a total of eight cities from the state of Michigan were featured in the rankings, including Detroit (7th), Big Rapids (12th), East Lansing (14th), Houghton (21st), Ann Arbor (24th), Marquette (38th), Sault Ste. Marie (39th) and Kalamazoo (55th).
Among WCHA member locations, Big Rapids placed highest followed by Bowling Green (18th), Houghton, Mankato (35th), Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, Fairbanks (50th), Bemidji (51st), Huntsville (70th) and Anchorage (73rd).
Big Rapids ranked among the country's top cities in several criteria, including friendliness and engagement of NCAA Division I hockey fans, which refers to the number of Twitter followers and Facebook likes per capita. The Bulldogs are among the top programs in college hockey and lead the WCHA in both categories.
Ferris State Hockey also helped Big Rapids be listed among the top 15 in performance level overall of an NCAA Division I hockey team and the Ewigleben Ice Arena ranked among the top 15 in the country for stadium accessibility of college hockey venues. Big Rapids also was listed at the top of the rankings in local establishments supporting athletics per 100,000 residents.
Data used to create the rankings was obtained from various sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Team Marketing Report, ESPN, NHL, USCHO, Yelp, SportsBusiness Journal and team member websites.