I'm American and I got Manchester United and City. Woo hoo! Two soccer/football teams committed to memory and so many more to go. But I'm trying, world.
The only soccer teams that show up on this list are really big internationally famous ones with large followings outside of their respective countries. I don't watch football at all and I got all of them on the first go except for Munich, I think.
Almost certainly San Antonio (with a username of punkybrewster). NBA Spurs have won 5 championships since they drafted Tim Duncan, now retired but they are still winning.
Once I ran out of Premier League clubs and had entered Real, Barcelona and Bayern, I just started typing in random words that sounded like the kinda things Americans would name a sports team. This proved a surprisingly fruitful technique.
I'm very surprised (like, the most surprised I've ever been by a Jetpunk quiz) that Cleveland Cavaliers isn't on the list. I'm not american and I don't watch the NBA, but haven't they been in about 4 finals since year 2010?
I tried Cavs, then Cavaliers full expecting them to be on the list. But looking them up, they have a value of 1.2B and the bottom of the list is 1.75B. But in 2010 they were only worth 250 million - their value is climbing quickly now that they are making it to the finals.
Name all of the NFL teams, all of the MLB and NBA teams in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and the most popular soccer (football) teams in the world and you'll get almost all of them.
I'm so dubious of anything that sites Forbes as source. I can't wrap my head around the "fact" that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are more valuable than global soccer teams like PSG or Juventus.
It's simply a function of the NFL being so valuable as a league. (Though clearly not enough to guarantee contracts or actually do serious research on CTE.) Cost has nothing to do with overall quality off a team.
I kind of agree with @martay. It's hard to see how the L.A. Rams can be worth $3 billion with the tiny fan base they currently have. But then again, sports teams are worth as much as someone is willing to pay. The value of a sports team is less a reflection of the underlying economics and more about the desire of billionaires to own a sports team.
Yeah, another who is surprised by some of the teams on the list. I'm not convinced that 'all' those American sports teams are worth more than the vast majority of the big European football sides (thos enot on the list), but I guess it depends how you choose to measure it.
I'm also very surpirsed to see Arsenal on the list ahead of Liverpool. I would have thought the latter had a much bigger global fan base. Maybe the value aspect includes stadium capacity and thus ability to earn income from match receipts.
Ohh and as a Brit, I need way more time for this quiz. My knowledge of US sports teams is probably only slightly better than the average American sportfan's knowledge of European football teams. The answers come to me, but slowly.
Well the Rams were great last season and are currently great again. They play in a huge market, and will have partial ownership rights to a brand new stadium that is currently being built in a planned community. Plus the ownership stake comes with a percentage of shared profits from the world's most profitable sports league, so...the fact that the Rams don't have a ton of fans *right now* (although knowing people from LA, the number of fans is doubling daily with the Rams' winning record) doesn't factor into the math too much.
The fans were already with their senses. And so were 90% of all Native Americans polled who saw no problem with the team name, which is not and never was a slur. Of those 90% most either liked the team name and logo, or just didn't give a crap.
However, what did eventually happen is that the team owners decided that they could make more money trying to appear woke and racially conscious by giving in to the demands of a vocal, misguided minority. And so they did.
Not sure how I missed Barcelona -- I guessed Forca Barcelona, Forca Barca, Barcelona FC... Every possible combo but the right one. Or I was spelling something wrong. Frustrating either way!
Ugh so many made up sounding American teams. Surprised there’s that much money in the cringe inducing, boring and life sapping things that they claim to be sports. Suppose selling weak beer and repeatedly having fans shout DEFENCE makes lots of money.
"So many made up sounding"? Pretty much every American team name up there is a real word thing. And if these are all "cringe inducing, boring and life sapping", what sports aren't to you? Give me a break!
Not saying I agree with the overall point being made but in fairness most American sports teams name's don't have much of a local connection and are much more corporate compared with the European team names
Be nice. Not every sporting event can be as exiting as a week long cricket test match during which most of the fans in attendance are napping and none are really sure what's going on. Or a scintillating game of the foosball that ends in a 0 - 0 tie after being interrupted every 15 minutes by some "athlete" falling to the ground nursing his knee like an infant trying to get ice cream when someone on the opposing team brushed up next to him. And yes team chants are so much more boring than getting crushed to death against a chain link fence by a bunch of soccer hooligans, granted, but some of us have lives to go back to after the sporting event is over.
I happen to like American football, and to watch it regularly, but, to be fair, it's interrupted way more often than any actual football match I've ever seen. It's the ultimate get-drunk-and-take-a-nap sport, tailored to people with a 12-second attention span. It's 3h of commercials occasionally interrupted by very short bursts of play. Again: I like it, but let's try to be somewhat fair here.
American football wishes it was interrupted "every 15 minutes". It's also by faaaar the professional sport with the most severe injuries, despite the players being heavily body-armored.
I don't get why anybody thinks any sport is for people with a 12 second attention span. What are you doing in between downs? Not paying attention? Not analyzing?
Whether they win or lose, I love watching them. My favorite part of a loss is seeing the inevitable close up shot of Jerry Jones' botoxed, scowling face as he seethes in his owners box. A win is pretty ok too.
The fact that a advertising block with some interruptions of a few man in armored suits running after a egg shaped ball is the most present in this list is just showing how much of a joke America is and how meaningless this 'sport' actually is.
I think it actually shows how filthy stinking rich America is, don't see how that makes the whole country a joke. I'd prefer football to watching a bunch of sweaty astronauts getting rich off of Saudi and Russian oil money drive stupid fast cars around a track for an hour and a half.
Not necessarily. I was Germany for the first time since Covid this summer and was shocked by the number of NFL branded jerseys, t shirts, jackets and caps I saw. It wasn't a huge percentage but any time I was in a bigger city I would see 20 to 30 people in NFL garb. A couple of times a day when people figured out I was American, I'd get asked NFL questions some of which I was unable to give an intelligent answer to. I would go days before seeing NFL stuff in 2019.
It's very common in a lot of Europe for US sports gear to be worn purely as fashion, especially with some teams. For instance, Raiders gear has been popularised by early 90s West Coast rappers, and most people wearing it couldn't name a single player on that team (or indeed tell you that it's a team, or what sport it plays). Similar with Yankees caps.
I fully understand why F1 Teams are in this quiz, but the official names (Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG F1 Team) would help some people understand that this is the sports team and not the carmaker.
Am I wrong for thinking this list used to have a significantly more even baseball:basketball ratio? Like, I feel like NYY used to be #2 after DAL.... Did they change something about their calculations, or did something happen recently to account for this shift (or am I just wrong here)?
You are correct. The biggest reason for the changes is the NFL is printing money and every teams makes hundreds of millions each year. The only two NFL teams on this list have small media markets, fan and corporate bases to siphon extra money out of the system (Saints and Bengals). NBA ratings have plateaued and without a big infusion of Amazon money the current TV deals wouldn't have grown much over the previous one. MLB is falling apart and there is a very good chance we miss 2027 because of unrest between the union and the owners. There used to be 10 or so MLB teams on the list now there are only 2 and the Yankees and Dodgers used to be both in the top 10.
Yes, but this perfectly outlines the comparative business models of Football/Formula 1 teams and US sports. The object of the latter is for the owners to make as much money as they can. Winning is a bonus.
For the former, winning is everything (provided that the teams survive), so they sell their grounds to sister companies, pump in cash, and, generally, don't rip off their fanbase anywhere near as much.
Hence, clubs that once won everything regularly in the UK - Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, having been taken over by Americans now have massive debts or just don't win much. I should probably exclude the Wrexham owners from this. They appear to have fully embraced British values, and the Wrexham fans love them as a result, whereas the Glazers (particularly) are just seen as leeches.
The Glazers are not seen as leeches: they are leeches.
I've been calling them parasites for years, but I actually think I prefer the word: leeches, now It just sounds better, and kind of works if you combine it with Glazers: Gleeches?
how are these values even calculated lol? who outside the US really watches football that much? and how are teams that literally everyone knows not even mentioned. what a weird list, do football players get paid billions for doing MCDonalds ads in the US lol
Could you accept just "Manchester"? I tried that, but it wasn't accepted, even though Madrid and Barcelona were taken as their short forms for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
I'm also very surpirsed to see Arsenal on the list ahead of Liverpool. I would have thought the latter had a much bigger global fan base. Maybe the value aspect includes stadium capacity and thus ability to earn income from match receipts.
However, what did eventually happen is that the team owners decided that they could make more money trying to appear woke and racially conscious by giving in to the demands of a vocal, misguided minority. And so they did.
For the former, winning is everything (provided that the teams survive), so they sell their grounds to sister companies, pump in cash, and, generally, don't rip off their fanbase anywhere near as much.
Hence, clubs that once won everything regularly in the UK - Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, having been taken over by Americans now have massive debts or just don't win much. I should probably exclude the Wrexham owners from this. They appear to have fully embraced British values, and the Wrexham fans love them as a result, whereas the Glazers (particularly) are just seen as leeches.
I've been calling them parasites for years, but I actually think I prefer the word: leeches, now It just sounds better, and kind of works if you combine it with Glazers: Gleeches?
Hmm, I'll work on it, but thanks.
In the same way, Los Angeles can't be an answer here because you need to say which LA team you mean.