Why do we play pre-season matches in the US?

Bastian

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On artificial surfaces no less. Clocking up air miles and getting first XI players injured on shite pitches.

Why aren't we playing much nearer to home staying in the same area for 3-4 weeks and just actually working on getting ready for the season?

How much money does the club make from touring the US and does it really make that much of a difference?
 
Where do you think the money for the next Ajax or ex-Ajax player that ETH wants comes from?

Jokes apart, the simple answer, as mentioned in the post above, is money. The tours are a money spinner and help popularize the club in a big market. The more popular the club, more the merchandise sales, more the sponsors, more the money.

I don't have the figures, but I am sure the US and the Asia, especially South-east Asia, are huge markets for the club. You have to take care of the sponsors and fans in those locations.
 
Money. We are huge in the US, so much so that there's been data to conclude that Man Utd are the most supported European football team there. It's quite close with ourselves, Real Madrid, and Barcelona as usual but there's a clear demand for us to go there. So, I don't expect this to change any time soon!
 
To rinse Americans who are willing to pay silly money to see a bunch of kids and squad players half arsing it against similar opponents, and pay 20 bucks for a stale pint of Stella.

Sad.
 
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Other teams play pre-season in the US and don't get injuries or have bad seasons.

City are touring the US and will probably win the league, if not them then Arsenal who are doing the same.
 
horsechoker said:
Other teams play pre-season in the US and don't get injuries or have bad seasons.

City are touring the US and will probably win the league, if not them then Arsenal who are doing the same.
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We also used to win the league after big pre season tours of the US or Asia.

The tours aren't the problem, but I guess they might exacerbate issues with an ill equipped squad.
 
Moolah.
 
Fitness, commercial exposure etc etc...

I would have thought it's fairly obvious.
 
Bastian said:
How much money does the club make from touring the US and does it really make that much of a difference?
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This is from a couple of years ago, so the numbers discussed might have gone up since, but here are some takeaways:

One source suggested that sides such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and other members of Europe’s traditional elite can demand fees of over £2 million per game.

In one good summer tour, let’s say 10 days, you could do as much (financially) as you could do with a global sponsor in one season. [Juli Nadal, Barcelona’s former head of global partnerships between 2013 and 2017]

The financial impact of travel restrictions on pre-season tours was laid bare in Manchester United’s set of accounts for the year ending June 2021.
United reported almost a £50 million drop in commercial revenue, down from £279 million in 2020 to £232.2 million, and attributed a portion of this loss to their inability to head overseas.

So it's a lot of money.
 
didz said:
This is from a couple of years ago, so the numbers discussed might have gone up since, but here are some takeaways:

One source suggested that sides such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and other members of Europe’s traditional elite can demand fees of over £2 million per game.

In one good summer tour, let’s say 10 days, you could do as much (financially) as you could do with a global sponsor in one season. [Juli Nadal, Barcelona’s former head of global partnerships between 2013 and 2017]

The financial impact of travel restrictions on pre-season tours was laid bare in Manchester United’s set of accounts for the year ending June 2021.
United reported almost a £50 million drop in commercial revenue, down from £279 million in 2020 to £232.2 million, and attributed a portion of this loss to their inability to head overseas.

So it's a lot of money.
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That's very informative. I think 10m or so does not justify not preparing for the season, which these pre-seasons essential do. They are a hindrance more than anything in terms of sporting matters. But the sales in merchandise is maybe an incredible offshoot of these commercial pre-seasons. If we really want to prepare for the season ahead though we will have to stop doing these.
horsechoker said:
Other teams play pre-season in the US and don't get injuries or have bad seasons.

City are touring the US and will probably win the league, if not them then Arsenal who are doing the same.
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Like I said in the other thread, Arsenal were catering to their owners who own that shite stadium. Arteta was asked loads of questions ahead of the match about how well he got on with all the different yanks in the organisation.
horsechoker said:
Crimson King said:
We also used to win the league after big pre season tours of the US or Asia.

The tours aren't the problem, but I guess they might exacerbate issues with an ill equipped squad.
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Back then players weren't flogged to death in International tournaments and we routinely had players opting out of International matches. We also had less of a competitive Prem. It is very hard to compare then and now. We are already on the cusp of collective burnout across the league, those in Europe have to have twice as big a squad or - which is what I favour with Europa - treat European second string competitions as games for the squad/fringe/youth players.
 
America is the home of greed and football is a very greedy sport.

They literally just hosted a whole Copa America despite none of the venues being fit for purpose and them technically being in the wrong continent.
 
noodlehair said:
America is the home of greed and football is a very greedy sport.

They literally just hosted a whole Copa America despite none of the venues being fit for purpose and them technically being in the wrong continent.
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I've long suspected that America isn't a real place, but rather a "reality" TV show, with the real reality TV show being us naively believing that it might actually be real.

It's probably watched by Americans, and that thought keeps me up at night.
 
Bastian said:
On artificial surfaces no less. Clocking up air miles and getting first XI players injured on shite pitches.

Why aren't we playing much nearer to home staying in the same area for 3-4 weeks and just actually working on getting ready for the season?

How much money does the club make from touring the US and does it really make that much of a difference?
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Because it is the richest country in the world with HUGE Man United fanbase, so there is metric shit ton of money made there during the tour. Also, Arsenal and Liverpool do the same, making for top level tour matches, again - metric shit ton of money

Why else did you think
 
didz said:
I've long suspected that America isn't a real place, but rather a "reality" TV show, with the real reality TV show being us naively believing that it might actually be real.

It's probably watched by Americans, and that thought keeps me up at night.
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It's too late in the evening for my brain to process this so I'm just going to go with the safest most default response.

"Yes"
 
noodlehair said:
America is the home of greed and football is a very greedy sport.

They literally just hosted a whole Copa America despite none of the venues being fit for purpose and them technically being in the wrong continent.
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We are the home of freedom and wealth. We routinely are at the top of the charts in terms of charitable giving, even factoring in GDP. There are a whole lot of rich countries in Europe, with higher per capita GDP than the USA, but no one calls them greedy. Per capita, the USA gives 7 times, yes, 7 times the amount of charitable donations compared to Europeans.

And it was Conmebol who wanted the tournament in the USA so they were the ones who could make more money. And they ignored advice and help from US Soccer and it was a clusterfark. Well done Conmebol. But they took the money and ran.
 
noodlehair said:
It's too late in the evening for my brain to process this so I'm just going to go with the safest most default response.

"Yes"
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I knew you would agree with me, even if only for convenience.
 
lolok said:
We are the home of freedom and wealth. We routinely are at the top of the charts in terms of charitable giving, even factoring in GDP. There are a whole lot of rich countries in Europe, with higher per capita GDP than the USA, but no one calls them greedy. Per capita, the USA gives 7 times, yes, 7 times the amount of charitable donations compared to Europeans.

And it was Conmebol who wanted the tournament in the USA so they were the ones who could make more money. And they ignored advice and help from US Soccer and it was a clusterfark. Well done Conmebol. But they took the money and ran.
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Here's where whatever your point is falls down. Well that and calling America the "home of wealth" in an argument trying to say it isn't somewhere that's greedy.

You literally charge people for needing an ambulance.
 
So our players can get injured on their shite pitches. Especially for new players, it's a good introduction as to how most of them will spend life at United - on the treatment table.
 
noodlehair said:
Here's where whatever your point is falls down. Well that and calling America the "home of wealth" in an argument trying to say it isn't somewhere that's greedy.

You literally charge people for needing an ambulance.
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Yep. It's freedom for businesses. In other words, lack of regulation to screw over the working class.
 
Probably because how good looking Beckham & Ronaldo whilst wearing the number 7 shirt back when we were winning titles.

It might seem like a joke but i genuinely remember how so many people wanted to look like and be like Beckham & Ronaldo arguably even before social media began.

We are not the biggest club in the world but we are the biggest commercial club in the world.
 
horsechoker said:
Other teams play pre-season in the US and don't get injuries or have bad seasons.

City are touring the US and will probably win the league, if not them then Arsenal who are doing the same.
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United is obviously winning the league this season, so yeah, your point stands
 
Bastian said:
On artificial surfaces no less. Clocking up air miles and getting first XI players injured on shite pitches.

Why aren't we playing much nearer to home staying in the same area for 3-4 weeks and just actually working on getting ready for the season?

How much money does the club make from touring the US and does it really make that much of a difference?
Click to expand...
When did we play on an artificial surface?


Bastian said:
Back then players weren't flogged to death in International tournaments and we routinely had players opting out of International matches. We also had less of a competitive Prem. It is very hard to compare then and now. We are already on the cusp of collective burnout across the league, those in Europe have to have twice as big a squad or - which is what I favour with Europa - treat European second string competitions as games for the squad/fringe/youth players.
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The players that do half decently in the tournaments don’t go.
 
First of all it is about money.

Secondly, if not USA, then it will be Asia or Africa, South Africa most probably. Many European fans already have the opportunity on Europa/CL games hence less likely to pay top Euro for the ticket.

Thirdly, only USA, and a few Asian countries can afford expensive tickets

Fourthly, it will be easier on travelling in USA, compared with Asia.

All of these mean nothing, if our preparation is poorly managed like last summer.
 
It's definitely money, with the next world cup in North America watch us tour there next year too. I have read that this years tour could be worth over £10m for us but not sure how true that is.
 
Havak said:
Money. We are huge in the US, so much so that there's been data to conclude that Man Utd are the most supported European football team there. It's quite close with ourselves, Real Madrid, and Barcelona as usual but there's a clear demand for us to go there. So, I don't expect this to change any time soon!
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I'm not so sure. I can't imagine that the INEOS regime had any choice in where this summer's preseason was. Either it's a multi year deal that the Glazers have left us stuck with, or it was arranged at least twelve months ago anyway.

I suppose time will tell but I'm hoping next summer we have a much better planned tour. At the very least we'll now have someone arranging it who doesn't just look at the money available, and might ask questions like "will this preseason actually benefit the team?" Or "does this stadium have a really shite pitch?"
 
lolok said:
We are the home of freedom and wealth. We routinely are at the top of the charts in terms of charitable giving, even factoring in GDP. There are a whole lot of rich countries in Europe, with higher per capita GDP than the USA, but no one calls them greedy. Per capita, the USA gives 7 times, yes, 7 times the amount of charitable donations compared to Europeans.

And it was Conmebol who wanted the tournament in the USA so they were the ones who could make more money. And they ignored advice and help from US Soccer and it was a clusterfark. Well done Conmebol. But they took the money and ran.
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The home of freedom :lol::lol::lol:

I didn't think anyone actually believed that shit
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I'm not so sure. I can't imagine that the INEOS regime had any choice in where this summer's preseason was. Either it's a multi year deal that the Glazers have left us stuck with, or it was arranged at least twelve months ago anyway.

I suppose time will tell but I'm hoping next summer we have a much better planned tour. At the very least we'll now have someone arranging it who doesn't just look at the money available, and might ask questions like "will this preseason actually benefit the team?" Or "does this stadium have a really shite pitch?"
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I keep saying this but planning long haul tours after major tournaments is daft.

Post Euros/World Cup, there's no reason why we couldn't have a longer tour in places like Norway, Denmark etc and still benefit from a commercial perspective.
 
I know it wouldn't generate the same revenue but I'd love to see a pre season where we stay in Manchester playing local teams, helping lower league teams and giving kids a chance to see us play during the school holidays, maybe some public training sessions, unveiling new signings.
 
It’s not just the money directly gained from the tour, but the continual building of the “brand” that’ll see fan investment for years and years to come. Just saying “it only makes £10m so it’s not worth it” is so naive and short sighted. These tours are worth hundreds of millions of pounds over a longer period of time, in ways that cannot easily be measured. They are absolutely worth it to the club.
 
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