i'm sure others have thought of it, but i only came up with the idea the other day. i was sitting in red bull arena watching the trophee des champions, montpellier-lyon. not an exhibition game. and i thought that just as the nfl has played real games in london, baseball in tokyo, nba and nhl in europe... one or another of the euro leagues could play an early season match on the east coast of the u.s.. for now that would mean red bull arena, maybe rfk. the weather is nice in late august/early september. wouldn't it be nice to see villa-newcastle in harrison? or werder-stuttgart? or seville-espanyol? or fiorentina-palermo? imo it doesn't need to be a superclub. is there any reason it shouldn't happen?
playing a "pre-season" super-cup type competition out of market (or anywhere) is really just an "exhibition match," imo. FIFA probably would have (or try to create) reasons why a competitive league game would not be allowed to proceed out of its own domestic market. Speculating, but two of the big reasons: a) teams and leagues wouldn't want to give up a home game to go play elsewhere b) the host city/nation/federations wouldn't want a foreign league product encroaching on their operating territory (Didn't the EPL recently shoot down the idea of a 39th league game to be played overseas? edit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/25/richard-scudamore-rooney-rule-39-game) Second edit: http://footballspeak.com/post/2012/04/08/The-39th-Game.aspx
you write the teams a check. the epl, being quite wealthy, could do that pbl better than others. the host sss gets paid too. rba was more than glad to host montp-lyon, which while not a league game, was an official match. the line from the myriad of exhibitions to the french supercup to a league match seems a thin one in terms of encroachment on operating territory. but yes, the epl had that 39th match idea. it was too ambitious. a single match would be an altogether more manageable scale. if fifa nixes it, of course it'd pbl be a non-starter.
yes, if it makes business sense for this type of deal to be arranged, then it will be arranged. but it hasn't happened yet. (Not to say that it won't or can't become a business reality, at some point.) but I certainly have no plans to write some foreign team a check so they can come and play competitive (foreign) league matches in MLS's territories. yeah, there's always FIFA sticking their noses in and trying to organize and manage the execution and business of the world's game.
Super Cups are fair game. Italians have been in China for a year or two now, the Spanish are about to have their first one in China. The really lucrative one from an American perspective might be luring the Community Shield to these shores. The English will eventually jump on the bandwagon of hosting Super Cups overseas. At the end of the day, its a glorified event. Yes, its competitive, and there's a cup at stake, but its not going to cause a lot of angst among fans. Ship a league home match off, and you'll see the same shitstorm that you saw with "39th game".
On a sidenote, smart move by the French to do that. A game that could have got 70,000+ at Stade de France got three men and a dog in New York. Will do wonders for their brands
i doubt montpellier-lyon would do that crowd in paris. the trophee has been overseas for about four years now. the crowd at rba wasn't bad. it was livelier than rbny crowds. i believe they gave away tix, but it was a good time. and an epl league match would do better. that goes without saying. they pay to play and manage the event themselves. i wouldn't worry so much about the 'invasion.' it's one game. and like i said, mlb plays in tokyo, nhl in europe...
you wouldn't like to sit surrounded by a bunch of twenty-something frenchies (eye-candy included) jabbering and texting on their smart phones?
It's not what you or I or any fan may be "worried about." It (the reality of how these top-level operational decisions are considered and made) is simply focused on what the likes of FIFA and US Soccer are worried about (and the thoughts and operations for how best to run their overall business). The global operational oversight organizations/business in the worlds of professional baseball or professional hockey (or professional American football) are vastly different than FIFA. Comparing what other sports/leagues may or may not do globally is not going to be all the relative of a comparison point to how FIFA chooses to operate and conduct/regulate itself and its members.
And because I do. How do you think Man Utd, Liverpool or Barcelona giving up a home game to play on a neutral ground abroad would go down with their fans? There would be a riot, especially if it was a big game, which let's face it, is the only kind of game that would be worthwhile in a business sense. The only possible way it might work is by having a lesser team playing a superclub forgo their home game but there would still be uproar from their fans. As pointed out, adding an extra league game is not desirable.
yes, you have to pick the game. but how hard would it be to write fulham a check and tell them one of their 'home games' will be on the u.s. east coast? obviously not against man utd. but there's some historic english clubs that could furnish the opponent (villa, newcastle, everton). such an appearance wouldn't be a negative even for the home fans who miss a fixture. it's also an honor for their club. it's only one game. there were lots of tottenham fans at rba the other night, and that was a mid-week friendly. don't underestimate the reservoir of fans of these clubs within reach of a venue like rba on a one-time basis.
Irrelevant to the discussion. I'm not interesting in attending a league/cup match for teams I have no connection to. If front running glory hounds who live for summer tours want to spend money on that, fine, just don't expect me to give a damn.
i don't spend money on summer tours. otoh i am quite interested in real competition. i'd go to a romanian league game at rba sooner than chelsea-acm at yankee stadium. exhibitions to real games is like apples to oranges. btw, one interesting part of seeing foreign games is the comparison i get to make with mls. it's about the game of soccer, not posturing. after all, saying 'i'm not interested' is as much of a posture as running with the 'glory hounds.' (although i don't think fulham-everton would be glory hound territory anyway.)
You would have to poll the fans of the teams who were playing before I would believe that. There is absolutely no benefit to them. I don't see a Fulham fan getting all misty eyed about his team playing a regular league game in the US but I could be wrong. Even then if you go with two mediocre teams playing a mid table league game to avoid upsetting the fans how much of an audience would there be and would it generate ebough revenue to make it a worthwhile venture for all concerned? Highly doubtful I would imagine. TBH if was such a good idea and legitimate proposition it would of almost certainly already happened. I think it more likely that a CL game would be played as an exhibition in another country than a regular league game. Either because the Quarters or Semis were changed and played at neutral venues thus enabling them to played anywhere (probably fan outrage again though) or one of the lesser European teams gave up home advantage for a big paycheck elsewhere when playing a superclub.
nobody needs to get misty eyed. as for there being an audience, the epl floated the idea of playing a lot more than one game in the u.s.. as for your cl suggestion, it strikes me as inconsistent. you wouldn't take fulham-everton away from the fulham fans, but you'd take away the home game against chelsea from fans of some some romanian team? english fans have more rights?
When the Cosmos become #20 in 2014, I hear they will open up against the Red Bulls at Old Trafford. And the Galaxy might play a regular season game in Spain. There is a huge market out there in Europe and they are starving for real soccer. Their own leagues just aren't doing it for them.
Unless the biggest teams were involved, who would go? And why would a game between 2 Euro teams, where the result counts, be of greater interest than an MLS game, where the result counts?
Unless there is a Man U type of team coming there is no point of a BPL match here. The visits of Stoke City and Swansea actually got less fans in the seats of the Rapids and Crew stadiums than regular season MLS matches for the same teams.