According to Forbes Magazine, Celtic fans rank seventh overall as the "Best fans in professional sports." Forbes used three different metrics across each of the four "major" sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) which were the following:
- Measure home and away attendance (indicating the team's drawing power)
- Counted team's merchandise sales (provided by Sportsonesource)
- Rank based on surveys of American sports teams by Turnkey Sports and Entertainment
Here is the full list:
- Boston Red Sox
- Pittsburgh Steelers (Chuck hacked into Forbes' servers for this one)
- Detroit Red Wings
- Indianapolis Colts
- New England Patriots
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Boston Celtics
- San Antonio Spurs
- Dallas Cowboys
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Montreal Canadiens
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- New York Yankees
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Chicago Blackhawks
While it's great to see the Celtics being the highest ranked NBA team, it's just as great to see the Lakers below them, just one slot ahead of the Cavs. Clearly this list is is partially a sign of the times, but a lot of those teams would rank in the top 16 in any year, just in a different order. If this is re-ranked a year from now, you could probably just substitute the Miami Heat with the Cavs because prior to LeBron being drafted by Cleveland, that team was a chartered member on the imaginary "Teams-That-Should-Be-Contracted-From-The-NBA" List.
