For those that haven't noticed it seems that the novelty is wearing off when it comes to Euro teams playing in Asia. Man U couldn't sell out their 2 games in China and their most recent one came in a half empty stadium. This happening in a country where Man U supposedly has like 40 million fans! There were also lots of empty seats in the Real games in Asia as well. None of the euro teams were able to sell out their games in Asia. Everyone regards Asia as a goldmine for euro teams, but seeing their recent attendances compared to the great crowds here in the USA, could we see the Euro teams shift their attention to the USA?
Well, "half-full" in that stadium is about 40,000 people. Chelsea and AC Milan attracted 26,000 at Gillette.
I think a poster in the Asian forum said it best - people are getting sophisticated and won't shell out lots of money to watch meaningless friendlies. The same thing is happening in North America. Revenue from international tours will dry-up for this clubs in the next few years, but they still have great potential to raise money in terms of merchandising and media rights.
True, LA sold out its match and the crowd looked great. But, according to the Fire boards they are only expecting 20,000 - 30,000 for the AC Milan match. And, Steven Goff states that DCU ticket sales just surpassed 20,000 for the Thursday night match. Now, that is great compared to where soccer was 10 years ago in the USA, but let's not kid ourselves. We have a lot of work to do. Based purely on the ticket sales, I don't see European teams passing the Asian market to come stateside.
also teams always talk about the great treatment they get in the USA while Beckham got spit on in Japan
i don't mind if it's meaningless. if they're playing good ball intensley, i want to watch it. if man u had their pre-season here, i would definatly go to most of their games in the tri-state area.
Yeah, there's something quite cyclical about it. You come a couple times, you can't come again for a while.
Not yet mentioned is relative ticket prices. I would be surprised if ticket prices in China were even half the US level, so 26,000 in the US probably generates more revenue than 40,000 in mainland China.
I doubt it. This is all about building a presence in potentially big markets. While I'm sure they'd like to sell out games, the real goal here is to build merchandising down the road. In that respect, the Asian market is almost certainly larger than the US market.
As of Wednesday morning's Post, Goff says they're over 25,000 sold, with the lower bowl almost full, so at least United-Chelsea in DC will likely outdraw Milan-Chelsea in Foxboro.