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I prefer to consider a number of a phrasal quantifier, like a lot of, lots of, a great deal of, etc. The number of the noun does not then come into play-- though countability is germane:
There are a number of players on the team.
There is a great deal of excitement about the game.
There are a lot of / lots of players.
There is a lot of / lots of excitement.
There’s with plural entities is a spoken phenomenon unrelated, I think, to Conchita’s original concern.
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