Niners only 8TH most popular NFL team in fan poll

As far as fans here in Britain go, a lot has to do with what the teams were like in the 80s when the game became popular here, and which towns have major universities that attract international students.

The pecking order is

Bears (the whole Fridge thing, great schools, plus Brits like nasty defences)
Dolphins (Marino was the darling of the country exactly because he never won it all - we like a lovable underdog here)
Giants (NYC, vacations, good schools, nasty defence), Steelers (nasty defence, more good schools), Niners (80s glory, gorgeous holiday destination, even more great schools, latterly nasty defence), Ravens (very nasty defence).
Patriots get some love, some through bandwagoneering, but also because of the dedicated missionary work by Boston expats. You know how obnoxiously dedicated Boston fans are with their teams. Also, lots of great schools up there.

I guess I'm typical here: jumped on the SF bandwagon as a lad in 1988 (ring a bell? ), was in grad school in Philly when we won our last SB (so now I'm a Phillies/49ers fan, weird huh?), and I come to SF for hols every year without fail (well, it is absolutely beautiful).

The 49ers are actually higher than I thought they'd be..

cowboys may have the most fans, but they also have the most haters. i bet they would also win Americas most hated team.

In India, the most popular teams are the Redskins and CHiefs.......hayayayayayayaayayahhh

The list looks about right. The Saints high ranking is from fans that jumped on the bandwagon when Brees and Bush got there because before that they did absolutely nothing. These polls really dont mean anything though. Cowboys have that "America's Team: crap going for them.But they can " watch the superbowl at home with the rest of america" for all I care.

This seems to all be about "Fan base size"

8th, I'll take it. Means a solid team historically with less bandwagon fans.

Are any of the teams ahead of us that surprising? I think you're overreacting to the is east coast bias here.

8th is honestly higher than I thought.

But can we stop with the "east coast bias" whining? Media attention is usually correlated to team success. In the 80s and 90s espn was all over the 49ers sack. Why? They were a top team. SF has sucked the past decade, hence little to no reporting.

Not hard to figure out.

Blake_Fever

Originally posted by Rubberneck36:
8th, I'll take it. Means a solid team historically with less bandwagon fans.

boom

Originally posted by niners4lyfe:
This list is about accurate but I know both the patriots and saints have "bandwagon" written all over them.

i dunno how accurate it is. whats the sample size? 5000? 2000? outta 135 million people thats a helluva small sample to make that judgement

After we win 2-3 more super bowls I expect that number change a bit.

Originally posted by NickSh49:


7. SAINTS - Here's your bandwagon team. This is pretty much your modern day Greatest Show on Turf. Before Katrina, no one was proud to be a Saints fan. Just take in account their recent success and move on.

LOL. we all know this already, but the only thing faster than their rise will be their fall. I can excuse the younger generation for jumping on this wagon, ignorance is bliss. but 25 year old and older and not from new orleans????? give me a break.

Originally posted by niners9:
cowboys may have the most fans, but they also have the most haters. i bet they would also win Americas most hated team.

i remember a poll came out a year or so ago that had the steelers on that list. i think dallas was still in the top 3.

mostly because the steelers have been winning.

Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:
i remember a poll came out a year or so ago that had the steelers on that list. i think dallas was still in the top 3.

mostly because the steelers have been winning.

harris poll?