Hershey Named Second Best Hockey Town in America
Via @SmartAsset
In a report conducted by SmartAsset.com, Hershey, Pennsylvania has been named the second best hockey town in America. In the 2015 rankings done the company, Hershey ranked sixth with an overall score of 80.25 with a fan intensity score of 72.41.
The site says they calculate the scores of each city using the following criteria:
To find America’s best hockey towns, SmartAsset looked at data on fan intensity and quality of life in 123 U.S. cities or towns that are home to NHL, AHL, ECHL or NCAA Division I hockey teams. We considered such metrics as the average attendance at hockey games and the amount of search traffic for the term “hockey” to gauge fan intensity.
Grand Folks, North Dakota, home of the University of North Dakota, took home the top spot for the second year in a row with a score of 100.00.
Hershey’s second place ranking makes them the top pro hockey town in the country, and the only one in the top ten, really proving Chocolate Town’s love for hockey. The Bears overall score came in at 86.35, with average attendance at 89% of Giant Center’s capacity.
Other factors the site uses is the percentage of the search term “hockey” in relationship to the term “food”. This was Hershey’s lowest score, as residents of the sweetest place on earth searched hockey only 20% as much as they search food.
The site also uses a quality of life score, taking factors like violent crimes per 100,000 residents, median household income ($54,118 in Hershey) dining and entertainment establishments per 100,000 residents, and the unemployment rate, only 3.8% in Chocolate Town.
The Bears return home to Giant Center on Saturday night to take on in-state rivals Lehigh Valley.