The Bundesliga Blueprint: How Germany became the Home of Football by Lee Price

Author:Lee Price [Price, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Soccer
Publisher: Bennion Kearny
Published: 2015-08-10T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: Becoming a global phenomenon

If you were to believe the Premier League’s marketing experts, and hype-generators in chief, there’s only one league that has become a truly global division – England’s top flight.

And, certainly, the biggest sides in the country possess a worldwide fan base. A Manchester United survey in 2012 claimed that the club had 659 million supporters, of which 325 million were said to be based in Asia, with a further 173 million supposedly from Africa and the Middle East. Those extraordinary – and, for some, slightly exaggerated – numbers mean that the Red Devils have more fans outside their home continent, let alone nation or city.

That purported popularity isn’t confined to Old Trafford, either – with most of the Premier League eager to similarly explore foreign fan bases. Whilst the division doesn’t have twenty clubs of United’s size, they were still keen to host a round of matches abroad, confident that even less-glamorous ties such as Stoke versus Sunderland would still appeal to a foreign market. An idea inspired, as ever, by the NFL – who host several games a year in London, to tap into their own burgeoning overseas fan base.

Though the ill-fated ‘39th game’ was blocked – for the time being, anyway – it showed just how vast the perceived interest in the Premier League is, something clubs are busily trying to make the most of, in efforts to open up lucrative new revenue streams.

This is, again, exemplified at Manchester United. Their American owners, the Glazer family, use the outfit purely as a business investment, and one of their key tactics has been to expand the club’s marketing department enormously. Upon their arrival in Manchester, United had just two staff working on commercial tie-ups around the globe. Ten years on, they employ a department of more than 150, brokering deals with their ‘soft drinks partner’ in China, the ‘Integrated Telecommunications Partner of Manchester United for Saudi Arabia’, and even an official paint partner.

Their headline achievement was negotiating a world record £750million deal with Adidas for the sportswear giant to provide the United kit for 10 years. In the context of Financial Fair Play restrictions, the agreement – which more than trebled United’s previous £23.5million-a-season deal with Nike – effectively writes off £75million of new signings each summer. And that’s before the money from their Irish potato chip partner, and the like, is considered.

But, as United and the rest of the Premier League milk their global appeal for all its worth, there’s an increasingly prevalent sense that they are neglecting supporters closer to home. So, while English sides have been out recruiting new fans overseas, a portion of their existing fan base has become attracted, and rather attached, to the Bundesliga. Some have even become fully-fledged supporters, with the financial implications of following a Premier League club meaning that it’s more affordable to follow, say, Dortmund than Arsenal; a recent marketing email from Stansted Airport promoted a Ryanair flight to Dortmund, costing just £17.99. A

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.