UNITED STATES—It’s not cheap to be a dedicated sports fan, or a more casual one. Since around the time Fanatics began taking over the scene, merchandise prices have skyrocketed – especially for player jerseys. Plus, game day tickets haven’t been immune to Ticketmaster’s exploitative dynamic pricing tactics.

Even in this current state, a new study into sports fans across the US and Canada has found that plenty have been able to give money to good causes. In New Jersey, we have one major league team, the New Jersey Devils. We could also claim the East Rutherford-based New York Giants and Jets on a technicality.

Looking at these three, we have an NHL team that’s definitely on the rise after securing a divisional playoff spot last season and despite a major injury. We also have two bottom-ranking NFL teams in the depths of a rebuild. Perhaps this has contributed to Devils fans ranking higher among generous NHL fan bases than the other two in the NFL scores.

Ranking the Most Generous Sports Fans in North America

A survey of 1,010 fans across the United States and Canada has now homed in on the cities across North America that are home to the most charitable sports fans. The survey asked if respondents gave more than $500 each year to charities and asked some questions about more day-to-day situations of possible generosity.

After crunching the numbers and ranking cities across the two countries by their final giving scores, the Betano research found the top two most charitable cities have scores of 33.3 percent and 30 percent. Those two cities are Colorado Springs, Colorado, followed by Windsor, Ontario.

New Jersey’s own Newark breaks into the top ten of the US rankings with a score of 22.2 percent – good for joint-seventh! Overall, a score of 22.2 percent puts Newark joint-11th, just below Ottawa, Ontario, and level with Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Jackson, Mississippi. It’s pretty on par for a city in a state that ranks tenth in US GDP.

Devils Fans Rank Among the Most Charitable Hockey Fans

Newark ranks as the 11th most generous city for sports fans across the two North American countries. However, when we zoom in on the NHL fans, as the Devils are New Jersey’s only true major league team, Devils fans kick it up a notch in generosity.

The data found that Devils fans land third among all NHL fans with a 22.6 percent generosity score. That’s a bump on Newark’s score overall! New Jersey is doing well in the NHL, and as even more improvement is coming, if theScore ranks hold up, you can expect Devils fans to have more reasons to be generous.

On the NFL side of things, in an NFL vs CFL comparison put together in the research, neither New York team managed to break into the top five on the US side. Also, only the most generous CFL fan base could break the top five of the NFL. So, in the giving state of New Jersey, it’s the NHL fans who rank as the most generous.

The home team is flying up the standings and fans can boast a very strong generosity score, putting New Jersey in an enviable spot among major league sports fan bases.