Fan Clubs

Baseball, Fan Clubs, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data, Top 10, watch party

Top 10 Baseball Teams: #7 Houston Astros

Posted on by Peter Swope

Number 7 on the Top 10 Baseball Teams list is the Houston Astros. When the ‘Stros switched from the National to American League in 2013, they were in the midst of a lengthy rebuild. In 2015, however, they burst onto the scene, making the playoffs and defeating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the AL Wild Card game. From there, the Astros cemented themselves as one of the top teams in baseball.

Their lengthy rebuild netted them several top draft picks, such as outfielder George Springer, shortstop Carlos Correa, and third baseman Alex Bregman. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the city of Houston rallied around the Astros, and led by MVP second baseman Jose Altuve and newly-acquired ace righty Justin Verlander, a World Series title came to Houston for the first time. Now, as one of the best teams in baseball, the Astros hope to make another World Series run in 2019.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Houston Astros game watch party or fan club near you.

Baseball, Fan Clubs, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data, Top 10, watch party

Top 10 Baseball Teams: #8 New York Mets

Posted on by Peter Swope

The New York Mets claim the eighth spot in FanWide’s Top 10 Baseball Teams competition. As a New York team in the country’s largest market, the Mets are often at the center of attention. Expectations always run high, but the Mets always do their best to deliver. The Mets, and their fans, do what they can to compete with the crosstown rival Yankees, the competitive NL East, and the rest of the league.

Coming into the 2019 season, many predict big things for the Metropolitans. Led by ace right handers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard as well as young star outfields Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, the Mets came into the offseason with an already talented roster. However, the blockbuster acquisition of former Yankees star second baseman Robinson Cano and shutdown closer Edwin Diaz might be enough to put the Mets over the top. Combine that with a promising farm system led by first baseman Peter Alonso, who may well be coming to Queens this season, and the Mets have a chance to contend. 2019 may even be the season Tim Tebow makes his long-anticipated MLB debut. The Mets and their fans are hopeful that this year may be the year a World Series trophy comes back to New York.

Visit FanWide.com to find a New York Mets game watch party or fan club near you.

Fan Clubs, Fan Data, Soccer, Sports Fan Data, Top 10

Top European Soccer Teams: #10 Borussia Dortmund

Posted on by Steven Freidenrich

For years, FanWide has collected proprietary data surrounding fan clubs and fan engagement in each of the major sports. FanWide’s fan club network has given us unique access to metrics that measure more than just a team’s success in competition. We can now measure the strength of sports communities. Using its proprietary data, FanWide has announced its rankings for the top ten teams in various sports.

These rankings account for and weigh fan engagement, popularity, historical success, and current relevance. The result? Unique lists, based on facts and statistics, that nobody else has ever been able to cultivate. FanWide is taking its fan club network and using it alongside its deep investment in sports culture in order to bring forth an accurate representation of the sports landscape today. In our analysis of European football, Borussia Dortmund ranked 10th among international football clubs. For more about how the European soccer rankings were created, check out this blog.

FanWide’s #10 Team: Borussia Dortmund

In recent years, Borussia Dortmund has rapidly gained popularity in America. While the German club has been prominent for years in their home country, word of their success has traveled to the United States in part because of star Dortmund midfielder/winger Christian Pulisic. The 20-year-old American has established himself as a key component of Team USA. With all of his success back home, Pulisic has brought along a new wave of American Borussia Dortmund fans.

Time will tell if these fans will remain loyal once Pulisic departs for Chelsea next season, but Dortmund has made an effort to retain the fanbase. Dortmund traveled to America multiple times in the summer of 2018, making stops in Los Angeles to play Los Angeles F.C, Charlotte to play Liverpool, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, near Pulisic’s hometown of Hershey, Pennsylvania. All of Dortmund’s recent publicity is adding up as they become one of the elite European football clubs. Read below to find out what makes Borussia Dortmund a top ten European soccer team.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Borussia Dortmund game watch party or fan club near you.

Fan Clubs, Fan Data, Soccer, Sports Fan Data, Top 10

Introducing the Top European Soccer Teams

Posted on by Steven Freidenrich

It’s the most popular sport in the world, and second place isn’t even close. Soccer dominates everything from street corners to professional pitches across the globe. While the sport continues to grow on the professional level in the United States, mainstream soccer fandom lives elsewhere. Since its inception, each and every World Cup winner has come from either South America or Europe.

Currently, the talent is coming from these two continents, but in league play, European soccer dominates in almost every metric, in part because of their willingness to pay unprecedented amounts of money for top talent. Seeing this, FanWide began evaluating over 100 soccer clubs across 5 leagues. Eventually, we took the consensus 15 most prominent clubs from the English Premier League of England, La Liga of Spain, Bundesliga of Germany, Serie A of Italy, and Ligue 1 of France, and compiled data that has allowed us to rank the top 10 European soccer clubs.

The top 10 European soccer clubs have consistently succeeded on and off the field, balancing championship hardware and bragging rights with fan engagement and international relevance. No team on this list has one and not the other. Read below to get an inside look at how FanWide cultivated a top ten list that uses its proprietary fan data to rank teams based on more than just production on the field.

FanWide's Top 10 Euro Teams

Baseball, Fan Clubs, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data, Top 10, watch party

Top 10 Baseball Teams: #9 Toronto Blue Jays

Posted on by Peter Swope

Coming in at number 9 in FanWide’s Top 10 Baseball Teams competition is the Toronto Blue Jays. Though the Expos have long since left Montreal, baseball remains a key piece of Canadian sports culture due to the lasting devotion of Blue Jays fans. The Jays draw fans from across Canada as well as the U.S. Passionate crowds fill the Rogers Centre for every home game, but the Jays also have a reputation for strong road showings, especially in FanWide’s home city of Seattle. With an impressive collection of young talent headlined by top prospects Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette (sons of former big leaguers Vladimir Guerrero and Dante Bichette, respectively), the future is bright in Toronto. The team will truly thrive, however, on the strength of the Blue Jays fan base, which earned them the ninth spot on the list.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Toronto Blue Jays game watch party or fan club near you.

Fan Clubs, Football, watch party

Arizona Cardinals (Cards) NFL Watch Parties & Fan Club Events for ARI

Posted on by Joey Schachtel

Unfortunately for Arizona Cardinals fans, 2019 will not be the first year they get to see their team raise up the lombardi trophy. The Arizona Cardinals are coming off a disappointing 2018 season. After losing many close games, the Cardinals closed the season with a disappointing 3-13 record. Fortunately for the Arizona Cardinals fanbase, the team is starting to point in the right direction. They have a future franchise quarterback in Josh “the chosen one” Rosen, an established star running back in David Johnson, and legendary wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

In addition, the Cardinals just hired Kliff Kingsbury who is known around the league as an offensive mastermind. Kliff Kingsbury had great success coaching college football and is known for his superb job of developing the 2019 MVP Pat Mahomes. Many believe that Kingsbury will be able to develop Josh Rosen similarly to how he developed Mahomes at Texas Tech. With the recent success of Sean McVay, young offensive masterminds such as Kingsbury are in high demand. In an NFL era where elite offenses are all the rage, Kliff Kingsbury is the perfect hire for a young NFL team on the rise.

Visit FanWide.com to find an Arizona Cardinals game watch party or fan club near you.

Fan Clubs, Football, watch party

Top Football Fan Clubs: Cincinnati Bengals

Posted on by Andrew Wilf

The Cincinnati Bengals are an organization who seem to always be hanging around in January. Although the past three seasons for the Bengals have been a disappointment to many fans, people forget that the Cincinnati Bengals have been in the playoffs five out of the past eight seasons. The past couple seasons for the Bengals have embodied mediocrity, but this year that will change. The Bengals just relieved Marvin Lewis of his coaching duties.

Lewis was successful with the Bengals considering he led the team to seven playoff appearances, but he never was able to win a playoff game. Recently, the Bengals announced that offensive-guru Zac Taylor will be their next head coach. Zac Taylor, the former quarterback’s coach for the Los Angeles Rams, will come into Cincinnati with a big task at hand, but the right pieces around him. Taylor will work with a roster that has a lot of potential. This Bengals roster is not up to par with the average AFC team right now, but in a couple years the Bengals may be a powerhouse in the AFC.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Cincinnati Bengals game watch party or fan club near you.

Baseball, Fan Clubs, watch party

Top 10 Baseball Teams #10: Cleveland Indians

Posted on by Peter Swope

Coming in at number 10 in FanWide’s Top 10 Baseball Teams competition is the Cleveland Indians. An important part of the recent Cleveland sports renaissance, the Indians have been one of the best teams in baseball over the past few season, with three straight AL central titles. Led by an elite pitching staff and an impressive lineup, the Indians look poised to have another strong season in 2019. Despite a smaller market size, Indians fans remain steadfast in their commitment to the team, earning them the tenth spot in the competition.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Cleveland Indians game watch party or fan club near you.

Teams were evaluated in 9 different categories (visit this blog post to see the methodology). The Indians graded out as follows:

Baseball, Fan Clubs, Top 10, watch party

Top 10 Baseball Teams: Introduction

Posted on by Peter Swope

Though the game has changed over the years, the popularity of America’s Pastime had never waned. No other American sport has rich depth of history of Major League Baseball. FanWide’s Top 10 Sports Teams series will be highlighting the most popular teams of the MLB, the NBA, and European soccer. The Top 10 Baseball Teams are a group of teams with rich histories, recent successes, widespread relevance, and, of course, passionate fans. From the even-year magic to the breaking of curses to 27 championships to a franchise win record capped off by another World Series title, follow FanWide’s blog to find out if your team made the Top 10 Baseball Teams. 

FanWide's Top 10 MLB Teams

Fan Clubs, Football, watch party

Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL Watch Parties & Fan Club Events for TB

Posted on by Michael Wang

Although it has been a long time since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2003, the organization still has a lot of potential to tear up the league in future years. Initially, the Bucs were off to a hot start with #1 QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and #1 WR Desean Jackson. This ultimately boosted fan excitement, yet it all went downhill from there.

Despite the rough that they had this year, a lot of big names and stars stack the Buccaneers roster such as Jameis Winston, Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, OJ Howard, Gerald McCoy, and Jason Pierre-Paul. Along with this roster, the fans of the organization have always wanted the best for their team and have been riding with the Bucs even through the rough times. Bucs fan can often find a local game watch party in their city using FanWide.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game watch party or fan club near you.