Manchester United has the most devoted and passionate fan base of the entire sporting world. United is also the most popular sports team on the planet. Surveys estimate that MUFC has 670,00,000 fans worldwide. Earlier this season, after United lost to their hated rivals Liverpool, 450,000 people dis-“Liked” United’s official Facebook page. However, that’s just a drop in the bucket, as that fan page has 47.5 million likes and counting.
Man United fans are so hard core that they started petitions to have bad players removed ( Tom Cleverley ) and flew airplanes over the stadium towing banners calling for ineffective managers ( David Moyes ) to be fired. And that was just during a few week stretch during the 2013-14 Premier League season.
The only world football bar affiliated with just one team in my hometown of Chicago is Temple in Lakeview. Their team? The ultra-popular Manchester United of course. I took in a match with their group and it was an extremely enjoyable experience. It was also part of my research for a piece I did on Windy City supporter groups for the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
“There’s no other bar in the entire Midwest that has Manchester United has it’s only football club affiliation,” said Jodi Kinglsey, leader of MUFChicago.
“The group is really diverse: there’s a group of Kazakhstan, British ex-patriates, contingents from Mexico, Japan, college kids, your average Midwesterners, every friend of United is a friend of ours.”
MUFChicago and Temple will be running a bus trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the Big Ten college football giants, the Michigan Wolverines when Manchester United take on Spanish titans Real Madrid at Michigan Stadium on August second.
For Manchester United supporters traveling to Chicago, here’s some detailed information on where Spurs supporters gather locally.
For locals reading this, and who are just picking up the English Premier League, here’s a primer on the league in general, and a glossary I crafted to get you up to speed on the terms.
As we’ve chronicled here, the EPL has really taken off this year, both locally in Chicago and in America in general.
I also had an exclusive conversation with Chicago Fire Chief Operating Officer Atul Khosla, and asked him about the day that when Manchester United came here to play the Fire in 2011 at Soldier Field the home of the Chicago Bears. It was a match that I covered.
“That Manchester United game was fantastic and it was the largest international Club friendly ever at Soldier Field,” said Khosla.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)