Manchester United is by far the world’s most popular sports team.
Some media outlets estimate their fanbase as being approximately 353 million fans. However, The Guardian newspaper places it around 670 million fans. That’s close to the figure quoted the other day by Manchester United Football Club Ambassador.
Captain Marvel Bryan Robson appeared on this week’s edition of “Premier League World” on NBC Sports Network. He was interviewed in New York City while promoting MUFC abroad.
“I think the last survey we did, we got 660,000,000 fans world wide fans throughout the world,” said Robson who’s official title is Global Ambassador, Manchester United.
“It just shows you what a great job the Glazers have done from a commercial side, and to great exposure. It helps if you have great success on the field, and we’ve had that for 26 years.”
Obviously, Robson was referencing the Sir Alex Ferguson era there.
Manchester United certainly has the most Facebook fans of any sports franchise with 27 million. The Dallas Cowboys have 5 million; tops in the NFL. With the Man United supporters in the United States, NBC Sports Group has a huge built-in audience when the team launched it’s Premier League coverage on August 17th. And this past month saw the highest ratings ever for world football in the United States. Manchester United supporters have a lot to do with that.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)