Recent “NFL Fandom Report” doesn’t look too favorably on Vikings fans

Every year, Emory University puts together what they call an “NFL Fandom” report, which is an objective analysis of which NFL fan bases are considered to be the best. Their 2019 report is available now and, just like pretty much every other year, it doesn’t paint Minnesota Vikings fans in a very good light.

The scoring is based on three specific factors called “Fan Equity,” “Social Equity,” and “Road Equity.” Here’s how those things are defined by the report’s authors:

Fan Equity focuses on home box office revenues (support via opening the wallet). Social Media Equity focuses on fan willingness to engage as part of a team’s community (support exhibited by joining social media communities). Road Equity focuses on how teams draw on the road after adjusting for team performance. These metrics provide a balanced analyses of fandom – a measure of willingness to spend, a measure unconstrained by stadium size and a measure of national appeal.

Whatever the calculations are that are being used, the final report shows the Vikings’ fan base near the bottom of the league at #24 overall.

Not surprisingly, the highest score that Vikings’ fans received was in the “Road Equity” category, where they placed 15th. Given that the number of purple jerseys that have been appearing at Vikings road games seems to have increased significantly over the past few years, it makes sense that this is where the fan base gets the biggest boost.

On the other end, the team’s “Social Equity” score is only 27th out of 32 teams, and this is almost certainly a direct correlation to the fact that not enough of you are following us on Twitter. That’s the explanation that I’m going with, anyway.

I’m not sure what Vikings fans have to do in order to move up this list significantly. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter. The bottom two teams on the list are the Kansas City Chiefs, who currently have the reigning MVP of the league and went to the AFC Championship Game last year, and the Los Angeles Rams, who played in the Super Bowl.

I’m sure that if the Vikings win the Super Bowl this coming season they’ll see a big jump in these rankings. Then again, we’re going to be too busy celebrating to notice or care.