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

Listened to the latest Athletic podcast and they either said United likely make 15m or 50m from the tour, couldn't tell. Likely the former. If it's the latter then I get it. They also explained that this is helping clubs with PSR and they are all given base guarantees regardless of crowd attendance. I think they referenced a Barca-Real match over there that brought 36m through ticket sales.

And on the NQAT pod they said the cheapest ticket for tonight's match against Betis is $99.

If they continue to do these tours, which I'd still hope they wouldn't, then at least limit the amount of travel, which we thankfully seem to have done this year, and ensure what kind of pitches we play on (which we haven't done).

Eugh, money.
 
Im sure the club wouldnt have wanted to go to the USA after the poor start to last year, but they signed the Snapdragon deal, who sponsor the Snapdragon stadium in San Diego.
 
Thinking about it, I think the issues are (in most cases) down to who we're playing rather where we're playing.

There's an old adage that there's never a friendly match between certain teams.
 
Whilst I’d love them to go traditional and have friendlies arranged in U.K., Ireland and Europe.. there just isn’t the financial returns
 
I think preseason after tournaments is completely pointless. Should only do it every two years.
 
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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I wonder what those figures would look like if you excluded donations to churches which inexplicably have charitable status and are basically just rackets.
 
All major clubs - and plenty of non-mjaor clubs - are going on overseas tours nowadays. Mostly to places with huge potential markets, such as the US.

I don't think you can point to that as the reason why we're getting more injuries than other clubs (many of whom would have had a very similar pre-season).

I guess if you're against them in general - and, yeah, I could certainly do with them not playing abroad at inconvenient UK times (I was awake between 3-5am watching the Betis friendly :lol:) then you could point to our injuries and try to make a correlation. But for it to be a major cause then that should apply to all the other teams touring the US and elsewhere this summer as well. And I imagine they won't be any worse than other clubs. And we'll be the main outlier again.

I've no idea of the reasons. And I'm sure there's plenty (including just rotten luck), rather than one specific reason. But I don't think being one of the many, many clubs touring abroad these days will prove to be a particularly significant factor in it.
 
Pexbo said:
I wonder what those figures would look like if you excluded donations to churches which inexplicably have charitable status and are basically just rackets.
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That's a bit harsh. Some of the hymns are quite melodic.
 
Money. End of.
 
JJ12 said:
Money. End of.
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Well, yeah.

But as that merging of 'needing to play pre-season games' and therefore 'taking them to markets where there's money to be made while doing so' is something that most other big PL / European top flight clubs are doing as well, then I guess the follow up question is: what's the benefit of not going to overseas places to play those friendlies, and does that outweigh the financial loss we'd have compared to so many other teams who continue to do so?

I'm guessing the main two advantages are domestic fans getting to see the friendly games live, and less overseas travelling for the players. The former doesn't have any onfield impact either way. And means less overseas fans developing and buying shirts, etc.

So it's just weighing up whether less travelling for the players in pre-season (something they have to do plenty of throughout the season anyway with European and international matches) outweighs the financial benefits. And all these clubs seem to be agreed that it doesn't. And it certainly isn't hindering the onfield form of clubs like Real Madrid, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc.
 
Let's never do these tours on the back of International tournaments again, and preferably never at all. I don't care if other Premier League clubs do it - aren't half the fecking league owned by some yanks anyway? I'd almost say sell the naming rights to the stadium for the remainder of our stay there if it allows us to actually just focus on football.

I'd love for interest in football to be 0.1% in the US.
 
I'd rather we didn't play in America but this stop's nicer than the others. Far better than that sterile one in LA that people were raving about for reasons beyond me.
 
Are City, Liverpool & Arsenal getting similar number of injuries as us in the preseason?

We are just plain unlucky or something else is wrong. Don't know which one it is.
 
Theyre milking the players dry with these preseason in the back of an international tourney. And then we are left worndering why are the players so burned out mid season.
 
tenpoless said:
Theyre milking the players dry with these preseason in the back of an international tourney. And then we are left worndering why are the players so burned out mid season.
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Most of the players had zero involvement in an international tournament, and if you want us to sign players like the 2 we've bought and also the 2 Bayern lads we might be buying, where do you think the money comes from?
 
it's traditional that we injury at least 3 players during preseason
 
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