Tailgating Experts Say Baltimore is America’s Best Football Tailgating City, Followed by Denver, Houston, San Diego and Cincinnati

Baltimore

, a city esteemed for its crab houses,

Inner

Harbor, and home of one of the NFL’s
most rugged defenses, now has another claim to fame: it’s the best football
tailgating city in the

United
States. Runners-up were

Denver,

Houston,

San Diego
and

Cincinnati.

After
analyzing a host of criteria, including stadium parking lots, overall
tailgating environment, tailgating-fan enthusiasm and the sales of tailgating
accessories like in-car live TV systems and mobile programming, an alliance of
tailgating experts has released for the first time the America’s Best Football
Tailgating Cities Index, a ranking of the “tailgating- friendliness”
of the 31 U.S. cities with an NFL team plus NFL-hopeful Los Angeles.

The Index
is a joint effort of KVH Industries, the leading manufacturer of live mobile
satellite TV systems for cars, RVs and boats; DIRECTV, Inc., the nation’s
leading satellite TV service provider; and a group of tailgating experts who
have personally visited and ranked every NFL stadium, including Joe Cahn, a
nationally recognized authority on tailgating, and the creators of the
“Ultimate Sports Road Trip.”

Rounding
out the top 10 were

Miami (sixth),

Tampa,

Fla. (seventh),

Kansas City,

Mo.
(eighth),

Buffalo,

N.Y.
(ninth), and

Philadelphia and

Phoenix (tied for tenth). The complete
32-city ranking follows and is available at: www.hightechtailgating.com.

“We’ve
found tailgating to be one of the most popular applications of our TracVision(R)
in-car satellite TV systems, which allow fans to watch DIRECTV(R) sports and
other programming live in their boats, planes, and passenger vehicles,”
explained Jim Dodez, vice president of marketing and strategic development at
KVH Industries. “As part of our ongoing marketing research, we developed a
ranking of the best tailgating cities and decided to share it with the public.
Certainly, the die-hard tailgating fans who go out of their way to follow their
team deserve a little recognition.”

The Index
ranks the “tailgating-friendliness” of the 31

U.S. cities with an NFL franchise, and

Los Angeles. Cities were
ranked on the basis of the overall tailgating environment in each city, as
measured by an evaluation of stadium parking lot sizes, fees, accessibility,
hours of operation and special facilities and programs for tailgaters; the sale
of DIRECTV(R) NFL SUNDAY TICKET(TM) packages and TracVision mobile satellite TV
systems for cars and RVs by KVH Industries in 2006-2007; and tailgating
impressions accumulated through personal visits to NFL and college football
stadiums by Joe Cahn of www.tailgating.com, the self-proclaimed
“Commissioner of Tailgating,” and Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell of
“The Ultimate Sports Road Trip” (www.thesportsroadtrip.com).

Baltimore

‘s top ranking is attributed to its high scores in all four categories
while

Tampa,

Miami
and

Buffalo benefited from high tailgating
expert ratings, and superior stadium or parking facilities boosted

Denver,

Houston and

Cincinnati. Ongoing
construction of the Meadowlands Xanadu and

Patriots Place projects limited the
scores of

New York and

Boston,
respectively, while parking or tailgating restrictions in

Green
Bay,

Chicago,

Detroit,
and

Seattle
similarly affected their tailgating scores. In

Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum and Rose Bowl were used for evaluation.

“As
the recognized leader in sports programming – airing an average of more than
3,000 sporting events every year – DIRECTV has its finger on the pulse of
sports fans,” said Daren Benzi, vice president of sales development and
strategy for DIRECTV, Inc. “When you combine this commitment to sports
programming with new mobile technology that brings live game action right into
the car’s back seat and rear tailgate, the result is the perfect stadium TV
experience for tailgating fans.”

Joe Cahn,
a professional tailgater who has spent the past 11 years visiting NFL and
college football stadiums to assemble a comprehensive library of tailgating
information for sports fans, was a natural choice to help KVH Industries and
DIRECTV identify the best tailgating cities in the country.

New York residents Andrew Kulyk and Peter
Farrell likewise have spent more than nine years documenting their visits to
every NFL and most college stadiums for their popular sports fan blog site.

I’ve used
a KVH TracVision antenna on my motorcoach for years and love it, so when they
approached me about using my research to help them identify the best tailgating
cities, I was glad to help,” explained Cahn. “As some of the most
devoted and passionate fans in sports, the army of tailgaters that assemble
each weekend contribute significantly to the unique personality and character
of each city.”

AMERICA

‘S BEST FOOTBALL TAILGATING CITIES INDEX

A Ranking
of the Most “Tailgating-friendly” Cities in the U.S.by KVH
Industries, DIRECTV and Tailgating Experts

1.

Baltimore

17.

Nashville,

Tenn.

2.

Denver

18.

New
York

(tied)

3.

Houston

18.

Pittsburgh

(tied)

4.

San
Diego

18.

Boston

(tied)

5.

Cincinnati

21.

San Francisco

6.

Miami

22.

Cleveland

7.

Tampa,

Fla.

23.

Charlotte,

N.C.

8.

Kansas
City,

Mo.

24.

Los Angeles

9.

Buffalo,

N.Y.

25.

Minneapolis

10.

Philadelphia

(tied)

26.

Dallas

10.

Phoenix

(tied)

27.

Chicago

12.

Washington,

D.C.

28.

Atlanta

13.

Green
Bay, Wisc.

29.

New Orleans,

La.

14.

Jacksonville,

Fla.

30.

St. Louis

15.

Oakland

31.

Detroit

16.

Indianapolis

32.

Seattle