Team with the most most bballfans in Europe.

Which team has the most basketball fans in Europe?

Before anyone starts mentioning teams like REAL and Barca, please note that I emfasise 'basketball' fans. Meaning fans which actively follow and support the teams progress.

My guess is that between Maccabi and PAO.

Maccabi has fans around the globe and not only in Israel. PAO is also followed worldwide by Greeks around the globe, but the Greeks are divided. They suport different teams.

I guess I'll go for Maccabi.

yeah right... KK Spodnji Duplek tops them all...

when it comes to basketball fans it's imo between teams like Žalgiris, Maccabi, maybee Partizan, Tau... others might have hords of fans, but not neccesarily basketball ones, that's why I'd dare to say Žalgiris is on top...

Matiz said:

yeah right... KK Spodnji Duplek tops them all...

when it comes to basketball fans it's imo between teams like Žalgiris, Maccabi, maybee Partizan, Tau... others might have hords of fans, but not neccesarily basketball ones, that's why I'd dare to say Žalgiris is on top...

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I also thought of Partizan as a candidate, but I can't see them having more fans than PAO or Maccabi. Maybe as much as Pao.
Tau, Vitoria is a small city.
Zalgiris. They sure have one of the most devoted fans, but the whole country has a pop. of 3-4 million.

Fenerbahce fans don't feel much for the recently merged basketball team.

Aek.

Matiz said:

yeah right... KK Spodnji Duplek tops them all...

when it comes to basketball fans it's imo between teams like Žalgiris, Maccabi, maybee Partizan, Tau... others might have hords of fans, but not neccesarily basketball ones, that's why I'd dare to say Žalgiris is on top...

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Matiz PAO has dedicated basketball fans.When the team wasnt so good as it is now the gym was full of people.And i am talking in the decade of 80s and more specific the last years.PAO fans not all of them but a big percentage love basketball team and i guarantee that even if they like most of all football if you ask every PAO fan which team you like mostly the majority will say basketball team.It is not by accident that this year EL PAO was the first in tichets..

I know Pao has a lots of dedicated fans, afterall this forum prooves it

Which is the team with the most fans in europe is a difficult question actually and purely based on guessing, I guess

but eventhough there might be only 4 mio lithuanians through the world, they are the most bball frenzy nation in Europe I suppose and I still think Žalgiris might have the biggest number of bball fans (eventhough in the last few years Rytas stolen some of them)- but of course it all depends on what is the definition of a bball fan...
same might be aplied to Partizan. Serbia is a bball nation 90% of fans are either Zvezda or Partizan fans, while I believe Partizan collects the majority of bball fans since they're the best serbian bball club...

With Pao I got the feeling that enormous percentage of greeks are actually supporting PAOK and Aris... with Oly coming along the way, I kind of thought as if those 4 clubs all have a simmilar number of fans through-out Greece

but as I said before that are pure guesses... I'd have to travel to all countries and towns, attend few 100 bball games to roughly get a right picture about it

I also think that no team has more fans around the world than PAO. On the second place is Partizan.

It is always hard to tell about the clubs with strong football sections how many truly basketball fans they have. My subjective opinion is that they first of all are the fans of specific CLUB rather than specific SPORT. And, of course, in the cases like CSKA, Pao, Barca or Real, basketball clubs profit from extended fan base as fans go to the basketball matches for their spare time from football (maybe PAO or OLY are an exception, dunno )

In general, imho, most people go to support clubs as long as they just spend good time (e.g. NBA) and / or it contributes to their national/regional identity. It is also true in the case of e.g. Žalgiris. People's following of basketball is much more about identity than about the sport itself, just like in any other country. Simply no other team sport in LTU is on as high level internationally that one could be proud of Of course, as a result, people become more knowledgable in basketball. When watching the shows, I think only LTU and ex-Yu supporters are as knowledgeable in basketball. Maybe Tau and Maccabi could come close. PAO and OLY supporters are so emotional about supporting their teams (supporting them in whatever whistle of referee) that it is often hard to tell if they know smth about the rules of basketball

turkishpower said:

Fenerbahçe Ülker

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It says basketball fans. 99% of those Fener fans do not know what a basketball looks like.

Chicago Bulls .

Barca/Real Madrid

Nikoo said:

Chicago Bulls .

Barca/Real Madrid

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no way Barca Real...maybe in football but in basketball even if the qualify in a F4 they will be alltogether 1000 people inside the arena.Far away for PAO 12.000 at France in 1996 or Maccabi in Prague..(i dont know exactly th number..)

crazy green said:

no way Barca Real...maybe in football but in basketball even if the qualify in a F4 they will be alltogether 1000 people inside the arena.Far away for PAO 12.000 at France in 1996 or Maccabi in Prague..(i dont know exactly th number..)

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Real did have a few thousand fans in the Uleb cub finals this year. But in order to get a F4 ticket, you need some more devotion. Since you need to obtain the tickets months before the start of the game.

Victorious said:

I also thought of Partizan as a candidate, but I can't see them having more fans than PAO or Maccabi.

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Victorious said:

Before anyone starts mentioning teams like REAL and Barca, please note that I emfasise 'basketball' fans. Meaning fans which actively follow and support the teams progress.

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make up your mind..
in the last few years before the strike against the managament of the FK Partizan Pionir was more empty then it was full..

I would say Maccabi or Žalgiris but I don't know the situation about Rytas..

Picek said:

make up your mind..
in the last few years before the strike against the managament of the FK Partizan Pionir was more empty then it was full..

I would say Maccabi or Žalgiris but I don't know the situation about Rytas..

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I have talked lately with Kestutis Pilypauskas (one of 2 top international referees in Lithuania alongside with Brazauskas). He told about his general impressions about fans as a referee when working in Vilnius and in Kaunas. He said that in Vilnius there is more NBA-feel in the fan support. Except for a group of "ultras", the public here is a bit more for a show than in Kaunas (let's be frank - Rytas is less about the city identity to Vilnius than Zalgiris is to Kaunas Besides, Vilnius as a capital has more options for people's entertainment ).

He said that in Zalgiris arena no wrong or doubtful whistle goes unnoticed by the public, so the pressure by "knowledgeable" audience on the referee is generally higher. I'd also guess the more compact space in Kaunas also adds to this impression - the Kaunas "Sproto hale" has this feel of English football stadiums with spectators sitting close to the events on court and directly participating in them

well, some spanish teams have a huge corwd. this year with bruesa in the ACB they prove to have a big fan-base (take a look at the voting for the acb mvp...). and i don't think they are football (or women volleyball) fans of the team. same goes with estudiatnes madrid, a lot of fans who - as far as i know - basketball fans. they managed to fill the vistelagre few times during the regular season in the past (15,000 seats) they brought many fans to the euro-cup f4 in girona this week, they surely have a lot of fans.

Civilis said:

He said that in Zalgiris arena no wrong or doubtful whistle goes unnoticed by the public, so the pressure by "knowledgeable" audience on the referee is generally higher. I'd also guess the more compact space in Kaunas also adds to this impression - the Kaunas "Sproto hale" has this feel of English football stadiums with spectators sitting close to the events on court and directly participating in them

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that's real easy to notice- if bball crowd actually knows what is going on, if there are many people that used to play bball in it and the worse, if they actually know the rules or the game- that's the devotion uleb dreams about, sadly it isn't appearing in the right countries for them...

Matiz said:

that's real easy to notice- if bball crowd actually knows what is going on, if there are many people that used to play bball in it and the worse, if they actually know the rules or the game- that's the devotion uleb dreams about, sadly it isn't appearing in the right countries for them...

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Let's hope the ULEB "devotion policy" does not lead to the erosion of devotion in the basketball-devoted countries..

Sorry for the OT, but I've also heard some latest semi-official talks from the latest EL board metting:

All teams are united by one thing - general dissatisfaction with the present situation.

Most clubs would prefer the Champions league system for EL with its clear and open pyramid, plus obvious chances to enter higher level competition over time. The problem - relationship with FIBA.

No EL enlargement next season for sure (we all know it officially, already)

3-year system will be abolished after the next season. The choice will be made each year for one season.

Of course, what we will see in the coming year is lots of negotiations

just anted to start with another long 3 hours reply...but than decided I have to study math...
anyway there are enough ideas for a new thread in euroleague forum within a day

Matiz said:

I know Pao has a lots of dedicated fans, afterall this forum prooves it

Which is the team with the most fans in europe is a difficult question actually and purely based on guessing, I guess

but eventhough there might be only 4 mio lithuanians through the world, they are the most bball frenzy nation in Europe I suppose and I still think Žalgiris might have the biggest number of bball fans (eventhough in the last few years Rytas stolen some of them)- but of course it all depends on what is the definition of a bball fan...
same might be aplied to Partizan. Serbia is a bball nation 90% of fans are either Zvezda or Partizan fans, while I believe Partizan collects the majority of bball fans since they're the best serbian bball club...

With Pao I got the feeling that enormous percentage of greeks are actually supporting PAOK and Aris... with Oly coming along the way, I kind of thought as if those 4 clubs all have a simmilar number of fans through-out Greece

but as I said before that are pure guesses... I'd have to travel to all countries and towns, attend few 100 bball games to roughly get a right picture about it

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Actually 50% of all greeks are oly fans. Far behind lays pao sharing almost the same percentage with aek, paok and aris. And after them iraklis and panionios.These are the only teams in greece that have reached a franchise status and have fans even out of their towns/cities. But i would guess that pao has the most bball fans like me. I love the bball team but i wouldn't give a flying shit about any other section and especially football since i don't even remotelly like the sport.

As for lithuania, i remember zalgirinis giving me a link about kaunas and under the section religion the following was stated:"Doesn't matter if you're muslim, christian or budist. All religions are accepted as long as you love bball first". So i guess bball is a religion over there.

About the most pure bball fans i guess it would have to be between pao, maccabi, zalgiris or partizan. However devotion plays also a role imo. For example malaga has a sold out arena almost every week in EL but i never see their fans following the teams in other arenas like pao or maccabi fans do.