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Baseball Parks Win at Gate by Opening Their Doors to International Soccer
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: July 14, 2012
It should not be surprising that the new Yankee Stadium’s entry onto the international soccer stage will be with matches that feature three of Europe’s top clubs — Real Madrid, A. C. Milan and Chelsea — and Paris St. Germain, which aspires to world renown under its Qatari ownership.
“To get the ball rolling, we wanted to bring in some of the most famous teams in the world,” said Mark Holtzman, the Yankees’ director of program development. “It’s important that you start at the top.”
The games at Yankee Stadium — Chelsea versus Paris St. Germain on July 22 and Real Madrid against A.C. Milan on Aug. 8 — are part of the World Football Challenge, a venture of Soccer United Marketing, the marketing wing of Major League Soccer, and CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency.
All nine games in the World Football Challenge are exhibitions, as are 26 of the 28 other matches in North America that start Wednesday and feature international clubs and national teams of various distinctions, M.L.S. teams, and some minor league franchises.
This summer’s nearly four weeks of exhibitions have a baseball flavor, with games at two early 20th century stadiums: Fenway Park (Liverpool-Roma) and Wrigley Field (Roma-Zaglebie Lubin); Yankee Stadium which was built to look like its storied predecessor; a retro ballpark, Citi Field (Ecuador-Chile); and Rogers Centre (Liverpool-Toronto F.C.), the Toronto Blue Jays’ retractable-roofed home.
“We wanted some iconic venues and thought it would be cool to hit the baseball stadiums,” said Charlie Stillitano, an executive at CAA Sports. “For us, it’s good business because the fun part of seeing a different game on a baseball ground is unique. It’s a great environment and a new perspective.”
The Liverpool-Fenway connection is natural. Two years ago, the owners of the Boston Red Sox acquired Liverpool, which has not been to the United States since 2004. (Roma’s owner is a partner in that ownership group.) Fenway experienced soccer success two years ago when a match between Celtic and Sporting Lisbon drew nearly 33,000 fans.
“Fenway is a pretty good venue for soccer,” said Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief commercial officer. “It’s intimate and it’s got great sightlines.” With joint ownership of the club and the ballpark, Hogan added, “Fenway had a leg up because we’re not paying a fee to rent it and we control the operations.”
Staging soccer games at baseball stadiums while a home team is on the road, or at football stadiums during the off-season, is an obvious way for teams to add revenue. Yankees executives look at their matches — for which the stadium will be rescaled to a capacity of up to 40,000 — and see a profitable formula, as they do for concerts and college football games like the Pinstripe Bowl.
“It used to be that there were only two or three big international stars that everybody knew,” Holtzman said. “But today, there are probably 50 who mean something here.”
Foreign teams have played friendlies in North America for years. But more games than in recent memory will be played this year because of the foreign clubs’ increasing desire to market to their expanding fan bases, the rising popularity of England’s Premier League games that are televised into American homes and the higher level of play by M.L.S. teams.
“The goal is to let our global fans see the team in person,” Hogan said, adding of Liverpool’s home stadium, “Not everyone can get to Anfield.”
Teams often receive a fee ranging from $150,000 to $2 million to play outside their home cities and countries. But Ron Gourlay, Chelsea’s chief executive, insisted the club was “not on a cash mission.”
Chelsea, which won the European Champions League title in May, is using its tour as a training camp, as are the other foreign teams, and to further build its grass-roots soccer program in the United States.
“We have a long-term plan,” Gourlay said. “It’s not just to play and get out.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sp...r=1&ref=sports
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: July 14, 2012
It should not be surprising that the new Yankee Stadium’s entry onto the international soccer stage will be with matches that feature three of Europe’s top clubs — Real Madrid, A. C. Milan and Chelsea — and Paris St. Germain, which aspires to world renown under its Qatari ownership.
“To get the ball rolling, we wanted to bring in some of the most famous teams in the world,” said Mark Holtzman, the Yankees’ director of program development. “It’s important that you start at the top.”
The games at Yankee Stadium — Chelsea versus Paris St. Germain on July 22 and Real Madrid against A.C. Milan on Aug. 8 — are part of the World Football Challenge, a venture of Soccer United Marketing, the marketing wing of Major League Soccer, and CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency.
All nine games in the World Football Challenge are exhibitions, as are 26 of the 28 other matches in North America that start Wednesday and feature international clubs and national teams of various distinctions, M.L.S. teams, and some minor league franchises.
This summer’s nearly four weeks of exhibitions have a baseball flavor, with games at two early 20th century stadiums: Fenway Park (Liverpool-Roma) and Wrigley Field (Roma-Zaglebie Lubin); Yankee Stadium which was built to look like its storied predecessor; a retro ballpark, Citi Field (Ecuador-Chile); and Rogers Centre (Liverpool-Toronto F.C.), the Toronto Blue Jays’ retractable-roofed home.
“We wanted some iconic venues and thought it would be cool to hit the baseball stadiums,” said Charlie Stillitano, an executive at CAA Sports. “For us, it’s good business because the fun part of seeing a different game on a baseball ground is unique. It’s a great environment and a new perspective.”
The Liverpool-Fenway connection is natural. Two years ago, the owners of the Boston Red Sox acquired Liverpool, which has not been to the United States since 2004. (Roma’s owner is a partner in that ownership group.) Fenway experienced soccer success two years ago when a match between Celtic and Sporting Lisbon drew nearly 33,000 fans.
“Fenway is a pretty good venue for soccer,” said Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief commercial officer. “It’s intimate and it’s got great sightlines.” With joint ownership of the club and the ballpark, Hogan added, “Fenway had a leg up because we’re not paying a fee to rent it and we control the operations.”
Staging soccer games at baseball stadiums while a home team is on the road, or at football stadiums during the off-season, is an obvious way for teams to add revenue. Yankees executives look at their matches — for which the stadium will be rescaled to a capacity of up to 40,000 — and see a profitable formula, as they do for concerts and college football games like the Pinstripe Bowl.
“It used to be that there were only two or three big international stars that everybody knew,” Holtzman said. “But today, there are probably 50 who mean something here.”
Foreign teams have played friendlies in North America for years. But more games than in recent memory will be played this year because of the foreign clubs’ increasing desire to market to their expanding fan bases, the rising popularity of England’s Premier League games that are televised into American homes and the higher level of play by M.L.S. teams.
“The goal is to let our global fans see the team in person,” Hogan said, adding of Liverpool’s home stadium, “Not everyone can get to Anfield.”
Teams often receive a fee ranging from $150,000 to $2 million to play outside their home cities and countries. But Ron Gourlay, Chelsea’s chief executive, insisted the club was “not on a cash mission.”
Chelsea, which won the European Champions League title in May, is using its tour as a training camp, as are the other foreign teams, and to further build its grass-roots soccer program in the United States.
“We have a long-term plan,” Gourlay said. “It’s not just to play and get out.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sp...r=1&ref=sports
