Friendsgiving has become America’s unofficial preseason for the holidays. One night, football, comfort food, and group chats. It’s not just a hangout, it’s a ritual. Some cities make it easy. Others feel one overpriced beer away from an early exit.
To put numbers behind it, Action Network built the Friendsgiving Football Index 2025, a 153-city model that measures how well each place supports a November hangout, from a casual Friendsgiving to a full watch party. The index combines Sports Access, Affordability, and Atmosphere to find the best cities for fans to celebrate.
Every city gets a final score on a 0 to 100 scale. Higher scores mean better venues, better weather, and fewer excuses to cancel.
Key Findings
- Green Bay leads at 61.52, driven by elite sports access, 145 sports bars per 100k people, plus solid affordability.
- Houston and Cleveland sit in the top tier with dense watch-party options and fair dining costs, enough to lock both into the national top three.
- College towns overperform across the upper 30. Bowling Green (OH), Greenville (NC), and Auburn (AL) offer cheap beer, budget-friendly meals, and loud fan scenes that edge bigger metros like Los Angeles and Miami.
- Honolulu and San Jose land on the other side. Beautiful settings, but higher prices and thinner sports-bar access weigh them down.
- Jacksonville, Tampa, Atlanta, and Charlotte get a boost from mild November weather and lower rainfall, lifting Atmosphere scores.
- Bowling Green (OH) shows the lowest beer price in the set, about $4 a pint. Corvallis (OR) takes the heaviest rainfall, proof that weather alone can sink an otherwise solid football town.
- Across the map, Midwestern and Southern metros dominate by blending football culture, affordability, and comfortable weather, while coastal cities run into higher prices and weaker access.
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Top 10 Cities Most Suited for a Friendsgiving Football Watch Party
These cities mix football culture, reasonable food and drink prices, and right-down-the-middle November weather.
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Highest Sports Access, deep football identity, and affordable dining for big groups. Watching a game with friends here feels like a local ritual.
Index score: 61.52
Houston, Texas
Big-city watch-party energy with real affordability. Sports bars are everywhere, beer is reasonably priced, and November lands in the warm-but-comfortable range.
Index score: 56.93
Cleveland, Ohio
Straightforward value, lots of sports bars, accessible prices, and a football-aware crowd that treats Friendsgiving games like bonus holidays.
Index score: 52.32
Baltimore, Maryland
A steady mid-Atlantic mix of affordability and fan culture. Plenty of sports bars and high event density push Baltimore into the top five.
Index score: 52.31
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Steelers country doesn’t do football halfway. Watch-party options are everywhere, dining stays modestly priced, and the vibe holds even as November cools.
Index score: 52.20
Cincinnati, Ohio
Strong bar access, fair prices, and a social scene that actually shows up for football keep Cincinnati inside the top 10.
Index score: 51.80
Jacksonville, Florida
Beach city meets watch-party city. Good weather, good prices, and a big game-day culture push Jacksonville up the board.
Index score: 51.46
Atlanta, Georgia
Active events calendar, big-city football energy, and reliable dining options make Atlanta a legit Friendsgiving pick.
Index score: 50.44
Indianapolis, Indiana
Steady and balanced. Indy doesn’t dominate a single category, but it grades well across all three.
Index score: 50.24
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
High passion, high energy, and a busy November event scene keep Philly inside the top 10.
Index score: 50.13
Top 10 Cities Least Suited for a Friendsgiving Football Watch Party
Not every city makes a Friendsgiving watch party easy. The bottom 10 share a pattern: fewer places to watch, higher tabs, colder or wetter Novembers, and less football culture to hold a group together.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Scenic, tricky for watch parties. Bar options are thin and dining prices sit near the top of the index. Weather is great but affordability isn’t.
Index score: 18.99
Syracuse, New York
Football-friendly on paper, but November bites. Low temps and plenty of rain weigh on Atmosphere, and access sits in the lower third.
Index score: 21.08
Reno, Nevada
Reno struggles with a combination of lower sports-access scores and muted November atmosphere indicators. Dining prices are moderate, but limited event density keeps the overall score down.
Index score: 22.26
San Jose, California
Sunny, expensive. One of the thinnest access profiles plus higher restaurant and drink costs.
Index score: 22.37
Eugene, Oregon
College-town energy, not the right weekend. Rain is among the highest in the index and bar access runs low, so Atmosphere and Access slide.
Index score: 22.57
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Very low access and middle-of-the-pack Atmosphere keep it near the bottom. Unfortunately, decent prices can’t overcome the shortage of watch venues.
Index score: 24.04
Fresno, California
Fresno posts one of the lowest Sports Access scores in the entire index, making it difficult for watch-party options to stand out. Affordability is solid and the atmosphere is better than other low-ranking cities, but overall accessibility holds it back.
Index score: 24.85
Durham, North Carolina
Affordable enough, but bar access lags and Atmosphere trails nearby Southern hubs. Underperforms its high-energy reputation.
Index score: 25.08
Athens, Georgia
Strong gameday culture, fewer watch options, middling prices. A higher Atmosphere mark helps, not enough to climb out of the lower tier, though.
Index score: 25.28
Corvallis, Oregon
Budget-friendly, tough watch-party city. Very low access and one of the weakest Atmosphere scores, thanks to its heavy November rain.
Index score: 25.33
Curious where your city sits? Check the full rankings table below.
What Drives a Great Friendsgiving City?
Sports Access
It goes without saying, but you need places to watch, meaning cities with dense sports-bar maps and an NFL team climb fast. Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Houston all benefit from baked-in football culture.
Affordability
Tabs matter. Meal costs, pint price, and basic food staples decide whether Friendsgiving feels fun or pricey. College towns lead with budget dining, while Los Angeles and Miami get hit by higher menus and drink costs.
Atmosphere
November weather makes a difference: mild temps, lighter rain, and an active events calendar push scores up. Jacksonville, Tampa, Atlanta, and Charlotte check those boxes.
What the Results Reveal
Put those three pieces together and a clear pattern emerges. The Midwest and South most often line up access, affordability, and workable November weather, so watch parties come together without much effort. Big coastal metros bring plenty of energy, but higher prices and thinner access make the night harder to pull off.
That gap leaves room for smaller, college-leaning cities to overperform. Cheap eats and fan scenes create a local feel that turns Friendsgiving into a plan you repeat, not a one-off splurge. Green Bay, Bowling Green, and Greenville are straightforward examples.
Zoom out and the trend fits how the season works now. Friendsgiving football has become the holiday warm-up, driven by convenience as much as tradition. It thrives where comfort, cost, and connection meet, aka the kind of places where friendship still feels close to home.
Methodology
The Friendsgiving Football Index ranks 153 U.S. cities across three weighted dimensions: Sports Access 40%, Affordability 35%, Atmosphere 25%. All variables were normalized on a 0 to 100 scale. Higher values indicate better conditions for hosting a Friendsgiving watch party.
Sports Access (40%)
- Sports bars per 100,000 residents (Google Maps)
- NFL presence: 1 (team in city), 0.5 (team in metro), 0 (no team)
Affordability (35%)
- Meal for two
- Domestic beer price
- Chicken fillet price
Atmosphere (25%)
- Average November temperature and rainfall (Open-Meteo)
- Google search interest for Friendsgiving and seasonal terms
- “Watch party” events across Eventbrite and Facebook Events
Final Index
Scores were calculated using:
Index = 0.40(Sports Access) + 0.35(Affordability) + 0.25(Atmosphere)
Cities were ranked in descending order.
Sources
- Google Maps – Sports Bar Listings
- NFL – Team and Metro Presence
- U.S. Census Bureau – Metropolitan Areas
- Numbeo – Cost of Living Data
- BEA – Regional Price Parities
- Open-Meteo – November Climate Data
- Google Keyword Planner – Search Interest
- Eventbrite / Facebook Events – Event Density
- World Population Review – City Population Estimates
