Pope Benedict vs Manchester United

This week, the Vatican published statistics for the attendance of the faithful at audiences, the Angelus, and liturgical celebrations during the past year. 3,368,220 people participated in one or other of these events during the past year.

Comparing this to the gate for football matches in the UK, the Pope has had far more people attending events than any of our Premiership teams. However, a better comparison might be to take the average "gate". Dividing 3,368,220 by 52 gives an average weekly attendance of 64,773. This is higher than any Premiership team except Manchester United which averaged 68,674 in the 2005-2006 season.

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