Houghton ranked a top 10 US hockey city for fifth straight year
HOUGHTON, Mich. – For the fifth year in a row, Houghton has been named a top 10 hockey city in America. The hometown of the Michigan Tech Huskies checked in at No. 10 this year. SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company headquartered in New York, released its fifth annual ranking on Wednesday (March 13).
To find the best hockey towns of 2019, SmartAsset pulled data for 115 cities and towns that had a hockey team in either the National Hockey League, the NCAA Division I men's hockey league, the East Coast Hockey League or the American Hockey League. They ranked all 115 cities across nine total metrics. The metrics fell into one of two categories: fan intensity and quality of life. MORE INFO
Houghton was ranked No. 7 in 2018, No. 6 in 2017, No. 3 in 2016, and No. 5 in 2015. It is one of only four cities to be ranked in the top 10 all five years of SmartAsset's ranking.
SmartAsset's Evaluation of Houghton: Houghton is a regular on our list of the best hockey towns in America. It has appeared in the top 10 in all five years that we've conducted this study. It ranks number five in our fan intensity score. We found that the Michigan Technological University Huskies can expect an average of 3,314 fans at games. That's equivalent to 42% of Houghton's entire population, the fourth-highest rate for this metric in this study. People in Houghton Google the term "hockey" only 11% less frequently than they Google "food." That's the third-highest rate in the study.
Grand Forks, North Dakota, home of the University of North Dakota, was named the No. 1 hockey city for the fifth straight year.