Fan Data

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

Top 10 Baseball Teams: #5 St Louis Cardinals

Posted on by Peter Swope

Coming in at #5 on the Top 10 Baseball Teams list is the St. Louis Cardinals. One of baseball’s premier teams, both past and present, the Cardinals graded out exceptionally well, with above-average showings in every category led by the most recent playoff wins and the second most World Series wins and second highest average attendance. In a St. Louis market without an NBA or NFL team, the Cardinals have come to represent the city and its fans, who are often considered among the best in baseball. Through their frequent success, they have represented St. Louis well. With the additions of All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and lefty reliever Andrew Miller to an already-strong roster, the Cards look poised to bring even more success to St. Louis this upcoming season.

Visit FanWide.com to find a St. Louis Cardinals game watch party or fan club near you.

Fan Clubs, Fan Data, Soccer, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data

Top European Soccer Teams: #9 Manchester City

Posted on by Steven Freidenrich

It is 2019, and Manchester City, the reigning English Premier League champions, looks poised to add another trophy to the case. The club’s 2017-2018 title was their third in the past 10 years, tying them with Chelsea and Manchester United for the most Premier League Titles in that span. Considering 60% of Manchester City’s all-time domestic league titles have been won within the past decade, it is safe to say that they are beginning to establish themselves as an English football powerhouse.

After years of living in the shadow of cross-town rival Manchester United, Manchester City’s recent success has allowed them to differentiate themselves as a club and claim some of the market for themselves. Establishing a presence in one of the most competitive regions of English football (the northwest) has given them additional access to fans and revenue, something to build upon in the future. Lead by Belgian midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City looks to stay among the top in the Premier League and make a splash in the Champion’s League in the near future. Read on to find out what makes them FanWide’s #9 European soccer team.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Manchester City game watch party or fan club near you.

Analysis, Basketball, Fan Clubs, Fan Data, Sports Data, Top 10

Top NBA Teams: #10 Oklahoma City Thunder

Posted on by Michael Wang

The time has come! The #10 of FanWide’s very own Top Ten NBA Teams has been announced. Since its creation, FanWide has gathered data regarding fan clubs and fan engagement, which is used in ranking the Top Ten NBA Teams is unique to FanWide and has produced a ranking like no other. The metrics used to list the teams from first to last were based on both their on and off court success. This balance ultimately creates a broader and more balanced field to judge teams in the fairest way possible. Without further ado, coming at #10 on FanWide’s Top Ten NBA Teams is the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Visit FanWide.com to find an Oklahoma City Thunder game watch party or fan club near you.

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

Top European Soccer Teams: #8 Juventus FC

Posted on by Steven Freidenrich

With the acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus FC has all but secured their next term of Italian football dominance. Juventus has been the team to beat in Italy’s Serie A for years, and adding the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has kept them atop the league standings. Ronaldo has done more for Juventus than dominate the pitch. In the 24 hours after Ronaldo’s signing, Juventus sold 520,000 Ronaldo jerseys worth over $60 million. When Barcelona signed Neymar Jr., they sold just 10,000 in the same span. In short, Juventus got what they paid for. There is a reason Ronaldo signed with Juventus. Aside from the $140 million contract, Ronaldo joined Juventus because of their tradition of success. With 34 Italian league titles, Juventus is an established European football powerhouse. Their success on and off the field has landed them the #8 spot in FanWide’s European soccer rankings. Read below to find out what makes them a top ten team, and check out this blog for more information regarding the ranking process.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Juventus FC 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

Analysis, Fan Data, Football, NCAA, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data

Football: America’s Favorite Sport, is it Yours? (Survey)

Posted on by Matt Carwin
Photo courtesy of Sandro Schuh

Football is the number one sport in America, but what makes football so special? Is it the action? The strategy? Even the commercials? FanWide is the world’s largest fan club network, promoting over half a million game watch parties every year for almost 13,000 pro and college fan clubs nationwide. Visit www.FanWide.com to find a local sports meetup wherever you live or travel. At FanWide, we value our fans’ opinions and we want to learn more about what makes football such a popular sport here in the United States. Please take this short, 2-minute survey about what you love, and don’t love, about the game. We greatly appreciate your time and keep a lookout for our next blog post with our results.

LINK: https://fanwi.de/FootballSurvey 

Analysis, Fan Data, Soccer, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data

The International Invasion of the MLS

Posted on by Rahul Bendre

Major League Soccer was created to grow soccer in North America, specifically in the US and Canada. As a way to ensure that local players gain visibility and experience, the league put a cap on the number of international players allowed in the league. Currently, there are a total 184 international roster slots for the 23 teams in the league. Although the MLS tries to limit international players playing in the MLS, the international players are arguably what makes MLS games exciting and where MLS teams gain most of their quality.

Visit FanWide.com to find a Major League Soccer game watch party or fan club near you.

Analysis, Basketball, Fan Data, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data

How to Accurately Gauge Live NBA Game Fan Interest

Posted on by Philip Garland, Ph.D.

The story of individual NBA team attendance is less straightforward than that of baseball. Since attendance hovers around max capacity at 93% and arena sizes are the smallest of the major sports, much depends on the capacity of the home venue for each team in addition to the usual factors such as team success and market size. Thus, the team with the largest venue—the Chicago Bulls, who built the United Center during the peak of Michael Jordan’s popularity—has the highest total attendance and the highest average attendance.

In fact, the 14 teams with the highest total attendance yield the identical order in terms of average attendance. These data suggest that other attendance statistics should be used to asses live game team interest. For example, the Bulls have the 19th lowest minimum game attendance at 17,462. To see the full data on NBA game attendance along with more insights, view the previous installment of FanWide’s data science blog series. 

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

Analysis, Basketball, Fan Data, Sports Data, Sports Fan Data

Delving into NBA Attendance by Team

Posted on by Philip Garland, Ph.D.

The story of individual NBA team attendance is less straightforward than that of
baseball. Since attendance hovers around max capacity at 93% and arena sizes are
the smallest of the major sports, much depends on the capacity of the home venue
for each team in addition to the usual factors such as team success and market size.

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