The World Cup is the most watched sporting event ever and the US is finally back in it after an 8-year absence. Many people want to become soccer fans yet know nothing about what it takes to be one, nonetheless a USMNT supporters. So, what does it really mean to be a USMNT supporter? What is the average age and what brands do supporters enjoy or use? This research paper, along with Zoomph data, will hopefully provide the answers.

Zoomph is a digital measurement platform used to gauge social audience intelligence and measurements. The audience for this research was people who live in the US and follow both the official World Cup Twitter account and the USMNT Twitter account. The audience size came out to be roughly 258.9K people. This was compared to the total baseline population of the US, which was 347 million people based on Zoomph’s measures.

 Demographics and Locations

The average USMNT supporter is most likely a male. Out of everyone who follows the USMNT on Twitter and lives in the US, 70.4% of the population is male. Over-indexing by 1.4x compared to 49.3% of the overall American population. Along with being male, an average supporter is also most likely a millennial. The table below shows that roughly half of the population (50.6%) describes themselves as a millennial.

As for where the average USMNT fan would be in the US, one would most likely be living in one of the big states of the US, such as Texas (36,800 fans), California (52,600 fans), or somewhere along the eastern coast. Most of those eastern coast states have around 15,000+ total fans.

Map: Total Number of USMNT Fans represented by Zoomph - Source: Tableau - Middle was set at 15,000

If one is looking to hang out with USMNT supporters to enjoy a game, any average fan will have a better chance of finding a supporter randomly in the Mideast or the South. Nebraska, Missouri, and Virginia will have the best chance of finding a supporter as those three states have the highest percentage of supporters relative to their total state population.

Map: Total Percentage of USMNT Fans relative to Total State Population - Source: Tableau

Brand Affinities

Assuming most Americans want to be an average USMNT supporter, there are several things one needs to know.

Apparel:

First off, any average supporter must love Nike. Nike is the official kit sponsor of the USMNT, so it is an obvious brand to change allegiance to. The top three apparel brands the average USMNT likes are all owned by Nike. These include Nike (17.1%), Jordan (8.3%), and Nike Football (7.7%), which combine for one-third of the population.

Automobiles:

USMNT supporters love Tesla, with 6.4% of the population loving the brand. Tesla's percentage doubles the second-highest car brand, Audi, which only has support from 3% of the population. Surprisingly, Volkswagen, the official presenting sponsor of the USMNT isn’t even in the top 10 in USMNT support preferences. Volkswagen sits 19th with 1.4% of the population owning one or preferring them over the rest.

Food and Beverages:

There are three specific categories any USMNT supporter needs to consider: Beer, fast-food options, and soft drinks (for those that do not drink or are too young).

For beer, like Volkswagen, the official sponsor for the USMNT, Anheuser-Busch, is not the number one option for USMNT supporters in the US. That award goes to Stone Brewing (2.3%), a southern California brewing company that is the ninth-largest craft brewery in the US. Anheuser-Busch is only ranked 5th with 1.5% of the population.

Shockingly, the fast-food preference for average USMNT supporters is Starbucks over any other. Starbucks makes up 15.6% of the population. The second highest, which is Wendy’s, is only half of Starbucks' population, with only 7.5% of the population. For soda and other soft drinks, it comes down between the obvious Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As for which the average USMNT supporter prefers, it would be Coca-Cola with 5% versus Pepsi with 4.4%.

Club-Level Team Support:

If someone wants to enter the world of soccer, the average supporter not only has to develop a love for their country, but also one for a club. First, any average USMNT supporter must choose a league to follow. One can go with the local national league, the MLS, but that’s otherwise a boring choice. Out of all the leagues, the one followed most by Americans that isn’t the MLS is the English Premier League, as shown by the graph below. 

  Graph: Most Popular men’s European professional soccer leagues in the US, July 2019 - Source: Statista - Get the Data

One could support what every other USMNT supporter does and go with a Big 6 club, primarily with the number one choice of Manchester United (10.8% of the population). Or one could go for a more niche market and support the heavily over-indexing Fulham or AFC Bournemouth with both making up about 1% of the population yet over-indexing by almost 20x compared to the normal American audience.

Other Characteristics

Listed below are bullet points of some other characteristics that make up an average USMNT supporter. These characteristics are straightforward and describe some personality traits average USMNT supporters have:

• Personality Traits: Inventive and Curious (29.7%)
• Employment: Business Decision Maker (41.5%) and IT Decision Maker (34.5%)
• Purchase Affinity: Loves Luxury Brands (5.2%)

The average USMNT supporter loves a lot of brands and has a lot of characteristics that any up-and-coming fan can easily follow and love. The brands and characteristics listed above are just points that can help any newly introduced can be integrated into the fanbase. Though these characteristics and brand followings can vary among USMNT fans, one thing is for sure, it is and will always be called soccer.

Ending Note: Data was collected through Zoomph. The audience used was people who followed both the official World Cup and USMNT Twitter accounts who lived in the US (258.9K). This was compared to the baseline of people who only lived in the US (27.4M).