New Study into North American Sports Fans Finds US Fans as Being More Charitable than Canadian Fans

There’s long been a friendly rivalry between Canada and the United States. As the constant underdogs, Canadian fans revel all the more when any of their teams find success in the US-dominated major leagues. The successes of the Raptors and Blue Jays in the distinct American sports leagues were celebrated across the country.

Of course, the US still has a stranglehold on the Stanley Cup, and has done for over three decades, but they mostly achieve that on the backs of Canadian players. The rivalries extend far beyond the court, field, and ice, however, even into examinations of generosity.

For over a decade now, some statisticians have assessed the people of the US as being more generous than Canadians. While outlets like CBC find evidence to the contrary, with a zoomed-in look at Canadian and American sports fans in a new study, similar findings have been found.

Comparing the 15 Most Charitable Sports Fans by City

On the Canadian study of charitableness among sports fans in North America, for which, 1,010 fans across the two nations were surveyed, Windsor was found to be the most charitable. Some 60 percent of fans from the city in Ontario would give a $20 found on the floor back to security.

This helped to bolster the city to a hefty 30.0 percent total score for being charitable. After Windsor, Saskatoon came a close second at 28.0 percent, followed by Halifax, Ottawa, and Montréal to round out the top five. Across the top 15, the total score ranged from the 30.0 percent of Windsor to the 11.0 percent of Québec.

Where the study performed by Betano may begin to ruffle some feathers is when we compare the total score average of those top-ranking Canadian cities with their US counterparts. Colorado Springs tops all charts with a 33.3 percent score, and Seattle foots the top 15 with a 20.5 percent total score.

This leaves the Canadian cities with the most charitable sports fans at an average total score of 18.53 percent. South of the border, the top-ranking US cities for charitable sports fans were found to have an average total score of 23.54 percent. That’s quite the difference.

How Fans of Specific Teams and Leagues Rank

The NHL may now be dominated by the US for Stanley Cups over the last few decades and by way of the number of teams in the league, but it’s still a quintessentially Canadian league. Still, it takes a bit of scrolling to find a Canadian team among the most generous fan bases, per the Betano study.

While they don’t trust their front office one bit, as Breakaway finds, New York Islanders fans rank as the most generous with a 25.0 percent score. It takes until you hit seventh overall to find a Canadian team, with that club being the most successful of all time, the Montréal Canadiens, with a 21.6 percent score.

Luckily, the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators also managed to break into the top 15 in the study. In the MLB, where Canada has only one representative, the Toronto Blue Jays landed 17th overall with a generosity score of 17.4 percent. Leading the way are the Cleveland Guardians with their 26.2 percent score.

According to this study of sports fans, it would seem that the more southern fan bases can boast about being that bit more generous and charitable than their peers north of the border.