Introduction: The US market has finally become a fertile ground for business for the Premier League's biggest teams, and this summer will be crucial for both Manchester clubs – but one of them still has a lot to make up for in the past.
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour and Manchester United owner Glazer family.
Although there is still a long way to go this season and the fate of all the major honours at home and in Europe yet to be determined, the club has already begun to focus on next season.
A number of Premier League clubs will travel across the Atlantic to the United States for pre-season this summer, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all expected to travel to the United States.
It's nothing new for clubs to go to the United States to try and develop their own brands. Manchester United were one of the first teams to do so, and as early adopters of the pre-season tour and taking advantage of the benefits it brings, they have been able to develop a huge global brand, even though Manchester United's success on the pitch has been relatively scarce during this decade.
Tours in Asia and Australia are also very popular with the biggest clubs, who are able to use the Premier League's global reach to attract new fan bases, market them, and attract large numbers of fans. This is a new business opportunity.
This summer feels different, though. All clubs in the U.S. have a big stake at the moment.
For years, the U.S. soccer market has been seen as the most difficult puzzle to solve. It is a country that already gets sporting events from the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, and it seems that there is little time for the sport of "football", which is not part of the American sports tradition and does not have deep-rooted social ties in the communities where they live.
In Europe, football is king, and it has always been. It forms a kind of common language, and the strength of European football depends on the enthusiasm and attention of its followers.
But many European football clubs, especially England's biggest ones, are now eyeing a global audience, which could help them unlock new revenue**, keep valuations climbing even further and ensure they can continue to pay high wages and huge transfer fees.
Over the past decade or so, the rate at which American capital has poured into English football has increased rapidly. In the so-called Premier League "big6", there are four; Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, all owned by American capital. Each ownership group's approach differs significantly in some ways, but in terms of "skating to where the puck goes" (in American parlance), they are very consistent in how they achieve brand growth.
The reason why there is more risk now is that this is the first real breakthrough, and the United States, which has long been considered the Premier League's largest market, is difficult to conquer because of the number of sporting events. Already existing at the elite level, it is now fertile ground for the biggest clubs.
The United States is making a big move to "football".
At the end of last year, the Premier League's domestic** deal was reached between 2025 and 2029, with a total value of £6.7 billion over four years. But the Premier League will have to give up more inventory for this, with 270 games per season instead of 200 in the previous cycle, and for a longer period of time. The actual value of each game is a little less.
This indicated that the Union's domestic rights were beginning to stabilize, but that was to be expected. But the growth is overseas, with the last set of copyrights being worth more international than domestic for the first time, with £2 billion from the US market being key to this.
The crowd is growing at NBC** games, with clubs vying for spot as Lionel Messi's Miami Major League Soccer (MLS) grabs attention and the U.S. hosts the next World Cup in 2026. It's a market where they want to join, want to be entertained, and are willing to invest time and money in the Premier League. It's a question of whose pitch is the most compelling.
The Super Bowl is an important event of the NFL season. This is one of the most watched sporting events around the world every year, and 2024 will be no exception.
When Taylor Swift's boyfriend Travis Kellce and his Kansas City Chiefs teammates win against the San Francisco 49ers in the stands at Faithful Stadium in Las Vegas, the number of spectators with her is expected to break records, reaching 1 worldwide beyond 20235.5 billion people.
Singer Taylor Swift and actress Blake Lively perform in the second quarter of Super Bowl 58.
*There's a reason why the most recognizable stars in the world play for free during the intermission, and the cost of advertising is the highest for companies to advertise during the intermission.
Interestingly, three football commercials ran during the Super Bowl. One of them was STOK Cold Brew, which used its sponsorship of Ryan Reynolds' Wrexham to show an ad starring Anthony Hopkins, while Messi and David Beckham were the focus of the other two.
Disney+'s Welcome to Wrexham documentary series, which tells the story of two Hollywood millionaires, Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who take over the North Wales team, has helped boost the reputation of American football at a pivotal moment. Still, while fans may be tempted by the antics of the second-tier teams, they want to see the best of the best, which is why Premier League clubs want to appeal to American fans as much as possible.
Overseas tours often bring in between £8 million and £12 million for clubs, depending on the region and itinerary. But now, there seems to be more at stake when it comes to transatlanticism, beyond the increased cash added each year for a few exhibition games and handshakes with fans. Future revenue is on the agenda and growing the brand at a time when the U.S. wants to get on board. This may not be an indefinite trend, and with the World Cup just around the corner, it seems like the perfect time for clubs to showcase their offerings.
For Manchester City and Manchester United, they will try to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the football-loving American public, who have yet to declare allegiance. Competition is fierce, with Liverpool and Arsenal gaining popularity in the US, while clubs such as RedBird Capital's AC Milan have leveraged existing ties with the New York Yankees and NY Yes Network to grow their brands in the US.
Major League Soccer is also starting to gain real momentum, with the Messi effect being significant in recent years, with teams valuations rising dramatically.
The latest data from Nielsen, an American company that measures global marketing and audience data, including the habits of the American public, shows that as of 2023, Manchester City is the most-watched team in the United States, with an average viewership of 36.9 million, compared to Manchester United's rating of 134m, below Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.
*Analyst Larry Johnson explained in an interview with The Athletic: "Nielsen calculates the average viewership for a game and says there are an average of 800,000 viewers over two hours.
All I do is track it on a daily basis, and the final table is the sum of the increased ratings. If City had two games with 800,000 spectators**, the total would be 1.6 million. It provides an overarching idea of two things: the team with the highest ratings in the United States, and the team with the most TV appearances. ”
Manchester City are trying to gain an advantage, not only by capitalising on their success on the pitch with some of the world's most marketable footballers, but also by tapping into culture, such as Pep Guardiola's appearance on a super-popular TV show. Jason Sudeikis performs, by Ted Lasso.
There is also the notable issue that the club already has some form of representation in New York, as the owners of Manchester City, the City Football Group, own the New York City Football Club. The colors are the same, the familiarity is there, and by owning a Major League Soccer team, they have the unique advantage of capitalizing on the interest of American fans and thus gaining a marketing advantage.
In recent years, clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain have opened club stores in the United States, Paris Saint-Germain has opened a club store on Fifth Avenue in New York, and clubs such as Liverpool are also considering expanding into brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States.
Most of the major clubs have offices in the United States, with Manchester United and Liverpool having bases in New York, while Bayern Munich recently set up camp in New York to try to get a piece of the pie.
Speaking in 2012, Ed Woodward, former deputy chairman of Manchester United, said: "We think the United States is a very good opportunity.
The broadcasting rights of soccer in the United States have skyrocketed. In the 2010 World Cup, they were the largest payer of broadcast rights. In 2014, events in Brazil soared again, and given that the Premier League has emerged from a niche sport, we expect the Premier League to achieve good results in terms of TV rights. ”
As it turned out, this was all true, and in a short period of time, U.S. copyright would once again be the market that pushed international copyright over domestic copyright amid signs of stagnation.
But unlike in 2012 and earlier years, when a lot of work was done in the hope that these markets would develop into major players, the United States is now preparing for what to grow when the 2026 World Cup arrives, and the clubs know that what they do in the coming years could determine their dominance in the United States and how valuable that status is to prove in the years to come.
The market is well drawn, and the market could play a major role in determining the revenue growth of the Premier League's biggest clubs over the next decade or so.
Manchester City have quietly made some significant progress in a market that many believe Manchester United has long locked into. With Liverpool's popularity soaring in the US, Manchester United's struggles on the pitch over the past decade have come at a bad time, and they may need to do more work than they realise to regain the initiative.