Man City & NY Yankees combine to create New York City FC

[Dan_85]

This is mental.

http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Club-news/20 ... nch-21-May

My first thought is that there's gotta be some kind of FFP workaround in there to benefit City, otherwise why bother? Secondly, is this not exactly the same as what Red Bull have been doing for a decade or so with NYRB, RB Salzburg, RB Leipzig etc. What's to stop city purchasing the licenses of smaller teams across Europe or the world and creating a bunch of new franchises?

Bonkers.

[Barriecuda]

What City gains is a major foothold into the United States market, a market that Premier League teams are hungry to tap into - especially now that NBC is making heavy financial commitments to bring unprecedented levels of coverage of the EPL to North America. Having the NYY as a business partner will mean a lot of new fans (Yankee fans who also like 'soccer' will jump on board this bandwagon with immediate effect) and will ensure that City has connections throughout New York that will allow them to move forward as they wish with few obstacles in their path.

The cost of the project, about 66m GBP, is a paltry sum relative to the moronic amounts of money City's owners have. They have also invested heavily into training and youth academies/facilities and the dog-and-pony shows they're putting on with Chelsea in the States are more evidence of an attempt to expand their global fanbase. This is all part of the business model for City - which is a stupid term, because when you have the kind of money their owners do, there is no real recourse for failure which means a 'business plan' is basically unnecessary.

It's a very scary development, IMHO. It probably means the artificial injection of a ton more money into the MLS to bring over "big names".

It won't be surprising if they setup some kind of link between City and the new NY team either that allows the easy transfer of players between the two clubs. What better use for all those overpaid bench warmers at City than to go and steamroll some lowly competition in the US and bring more "prestige" to the two franchises. Guys like Adam Johnson, Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell, the ones that are basically surplus to City could ply their trade in the States in shady "loan" deals; and if Beckham's tour in the US is any evidence, people will pay to go see these elite players, even if the circumstances surrounding it are a bit farcical.

Anyway I'm just very skeptical of the whole arrangement. It seems to me another case of football being whored out; but then again, I just fundamentally distrust City's owners and everything they do.

[northbank123]

Some interesting points there Barrie - although people flocking to see David Beckham and people flocking to see Scott Sinclair are two completely different things!

At the end of the day as you say it's all about the marketing foothold in the USA - they seem to have tried to target that market (seem to remember Garry Cook trying to instigate some connection there before?). Despite winning the league last season Man City are not a global brand in anything like the same way as United are and probably don't come close to Arsenal, Liverpool or even Chelsea. I think the USA being described as an "untapped market" as I have heard it isn't wholly accurate, but certainly there is massive potential revenue for anybody that manages to crack it in a big way. It's really the big one that all the clubs are looking at - Liverpool have been trying hard with their pre-season tour and FOX documentary, Chelsea seem to tour there most years and unless I'm mistaken United toured there last season at least.

This won't count as footballing expenditure for FFP purposes but any income it does generate for Manchester City will count - so there's only benefit to be had there.

[QuartzGooner]

New York Cosmos has recently re-formed and is about to play in the North American Soccer League (equivalent of The championship), wonder how they feel?

Guess Man City get a feeder club from the potential millions of players in the USA, with a rising population from countries with a football heritage.

But we had a feeder club in Beveren, and before than at Hendon (Hampstead) and Margate so this has been done for years on a more localised scale.

We also have ties with Kroenke's Colorado team.

[Barriecuda]

Quartz, just a quick FYI, the NASL isn't quite the equivalent of the Championship because there is no promotion/relegation structure with the MLS. But yes it is basically our second division, though the talent gap is very wide between MLS and NASL.

northbank, You remind me of an interesting point. The Liverpool ownership group is heavily tied with the Boston Red Sox. If anyone knows baseball, they'll know that the Red Sox & Yankees have a bitter, hated rivalry. Perhaps this will instigate more heat/rivalry between Liverpool and City?

Also on your point nb, one thing I find is that North American footy fans tend to be quite receptive to the chance to see top-level "foreign" talent. Vancouver's team seemed to garner a lot of excitement when they signed Kenny Miller and Barry Robson last year, and they've continued in that fashion by bringing on Nigel Reo-Coker this season. As well, Y.P. Lee - former South Korean international who was part of the 2002 WC squad - is the captain and one of the Caps most popular franchise players. Similar story for Torsten Frings (formerly TFC), Marco di Vaio (Montreal Impact), Juninho P. (NYRB) etc. Those players are of course well-known who have had long, relatively successful careers, but I don't see why people would be any less excited to watch top players in their prime; even if it was a Sinclair, Rodwell, etc.

As well, if you consider the maxed-to-capacity attendances for the meaningless friendlies that some of the big clubs have put on here in the last few summers, and the success of the U20 World Cup in Canada in 2007, it's hard not to think fans would continue to jump at the prospect of watching Premier League quality players in relatively any capacity.

[northbank123]

I'll take your word for that, as I said you know far more than me.

I think the publicity of the link with the Yankees is the key part of the deal that really makes it worthwhile from Citeh's point of view. There's no real comparator as (and I'm making assumptions here) I imagine the PL is already more popular in the US than any American sports are over here, but any sports franchise managing to promote a partnership with Manchester United would see an absolutely huge boom in support and revenue from the UK market.

[Barriecuda]

On that note nb, I'm curious to see how Chevrolet does after their sponsorship with United kicks into gear (no pun intended). I assume they don't use their recent branding "an American Revolution" over in the UK, LOL. That's quite an interesting thought, what would happen if a North American sports team partnered up with somebody like United over there to cross-promote.

Guess we'll have to see how the City/Yankees partnership does. The two philosophies of each team certainly mesh; the Yankees after all are the domestic kings of salary inflation and player buys involving astronomical sums.

[ElSquirrel]

It'll all end tits up. A lot of tea party patriots (read: effing stupid bigoted gobshites) will claim it's too soon from 9-11 for some arab to have anything to do in New York, way they shat on some proposed mosque in the same hemisphere as Ground Zero. Make spuds fans look like Nobel laureates the lot of them.

And in due course I'd find it funny as feckinell.

[Herd]

Strange move ,years ago the Yankees and MUFC had a tie up but from memory that was more for marketing TV rights .
As a Yankee fan I have no wish to see them tie up with shitty !

[DB10GOONER]

It's basically the 70's relived. Starts off with the famous players going out there and soon enough it's just the spent burned out shit players.