Our growth in the US

[andeez nutz]

In Hoboken New Jersey this past weekend for Villa game...

saw FOUR fans in city kits. All of them were current year jerseys, home and away.
2 Aguero, one YAYA, and then some guy in a real nice city jacket.
that is the most I've seen yet out here in America.

so that is a good sign for our growth

[Dameerto]

Good to see so many US of A Citizens joining. Just one question, do you know the offside rule?

wait, that's where the ref gives the team that commits this a 5 yard penalty, right?

:)

The offside rule is where the ref is guaranteed to break up a promising City attack if it looks like we might get a decent scoring chance.

[Duckman]

a bit off topic, BUT I just saw a 16 year old boy dressed head to toe in city training gear, and thats a first one.

[Lee_Kinda]

a bit off topic, BUT I just saw a 16 year old boy dressed head to toe in city training gear, and thats a first one.

We've probably just signed him!

[ross.mcfc]

I am rather sceptical about global brands and growth in places.

Why does anyone think we will become big in American in the next couple of years? United, Barca and to lesser extent Chelsea have been about a ten year head start on us. I think Celtic after Barca are the second biggest team in America but this is because there is a family link. Your traditional American doesnt give a shit about football, The biggest population increase in America that is open to football are South/Central Americans and will divert to Barca/Real or a top South American side. Your British ex-pats will probably still suppourt the side their family has a link to - hence the interest in Celtic and Rangers despite playing in a football backwater.

The same goes for Asia but throw Arsenal and Liverpool into the mix. Infact getting fans from those clubs is probably the only way we will see any growth in Asia.

The only time we will see growth in America or Asia is in 10-15 years time when the kids growing up today and can see us winning grow up, even that depends on us still being a top side.

China and India are the only places that if they take a proper interest in football that we could possibly see an instant boost in fanbase.

[Dameerto]

It's about positioning ourselves to take advantage of emerging markets. Getting our name out there means that when success follows people have already heard of us.

[ross.mcfc]

It's about positioning ourselves to take advantage of emerging markets. Getting our name out there means that when success follows people have already heard of us.

That is the sort of language we used to tease United fans about.

[Dameerto]

It's about positioning ourselves to take advantage of emerging markets. Getting our name out there means that when success follows people have already heard of us.

That is the sort of language we used to tease United fans about.

I was writing it with the RAGS in mind. Can I interest you in some shares? Going cheap.

[phips]

Your traditional American doesnt give a shit about football

As an American, he's totally right. Casting aside all of the Latinos and Mexicans who will almost
certainly go for Barca or Real, the remaining Americans that follow football are usually bandwagoners...
meaning, they will follow the most successful team, i.e: United or Chelsea. The vast amount of
American football fans I run into, and there are a lot in the college system, are either United, Chelsea,
Barca, or Real fans.

To be fair though, unless you are already a fan and have ordered the Fox Soccer channels, the only club football
an American can see (without out going to a pub to specifically watch it) is on ESPN and those games are
almost always Chelsea or United (now City is getting added). Oddly enough, Barca and Real club matches are never
on TV here..even the clasico. Their games are only on ESPN Deportes or the Spanish language Fox Soccer, which
isolates a certain fan base.

[JamieMCFC]

As an American, he's totally right. Casting aside all of the Latinos and Mexicans who will almost
certainly go for Barca or Real, the remaining Americans that follow football are usually bandwagoners...
meaning, they will follow the most successful team, i.e: United or Chelsea. The vast amount of
American football fans I run into, and there are a lot in the college system, are either United, Chelsea,
Barca, or Real fans.

To be fair though, unless you are already a fan and have ordered the Fox Soccer channels, the only club football
an American can see (without out going to a pub to specifically watch it) is on ESPN and those games are
almost always Chelsea or United (now City is getting added). Oddly enough, Barca and Real club matches are never
on TV here..even the clasico. Their games are only on ESPN Deportes or the Spanish language Fox Soccer, which
isolates a certain fan base.

This will change next year. NBC is taking over the rights from FOX and ESPN. The main channel showing games will be NBC Sports which is in a lot more homes than FOX Soccer and is a basic cable channel for most carriers.

[Michigan Blue]

the remaining Americans that follow football are usually bandwagoners...meaning, they will follow the most successful team, i.e: United or Chelsea. The vast amount of American football fans I run into, and there are a lot in the college system, are either United, Chelsea, Barca, or Real fans.

In other words, we're just like the rest of the world.

[aaron bond]

I am rather sceptical about global brands and growth in places.

Why does anyone think we will become big in American in the next couple of years? United, Barca and to lesser extent Chelsea have been about a ten year head start on us. I think Celtic after Barca are the second biggest team in America but this is because there is a family link. Your traditional American doesnt give a shit about football, The biggest population increase in America that is open to football are South/Central Americans and will divert to Barca/Real or a top South American side. Your British ex-pats will probably still suppourt the side their family has a link to - hence the interest in Celtic and Rangers despite playing in a football backwater.

The same goes for Asia but throw Arsenal and Liverpool into the mix. Infact getting fans from those clubs is probably the only way we will see any growth in Asia.

The only time we will see growth in America or Asia is in 10-15 years time when the kids growing up today and can see us winning grow up, even that depends on us still being a top side.

China and India are the only places that if they take a proper interest in football that we could possibly see an instant boost in fanbase.

I moved to Singapore 2 years ago and when I moved here it was all United and Liverpool, with the rare Chelsea or Arsenal fan chucked in. I never saw any City shirts.

2 years later and whilst it's still dominated by United and Liverpool 'fans', you do see City shirts about the place. So whilst our fan base here is still small compared to United and Liverpool, it is growing. The reality is that most people here choose to support the best team and at the moment we're the best team in England. Add into the mix we have someone like Aguero playing for us, who not only is world class, but is generally well liked, and others such as Silva, then it's only natural we gain more followers here.

If we win the title again, I would expect our fan base to increase significantly all across Asia and the rest of the world.

[Michigan Blue]

This will change next year. NBC is taking over the rights from FOX and ESPN. The main channel showing games will be NBC Sports which is in a lot more homes than FOX Soccer and is a basic cable channel for most carriers.

Things will get worse if anything. NBC Sports will show 4 or 5 league games per matchday...no points for guessing which clubs will be featured every week. Between FSC, Setanta, and Setanta Xtra, we used to get 8-9 games per matchday. It's just a continual narrowing of league coverage, and although City may benefit slightly, I think it's a bad thing in principle. I will hate it even more when they pick "glamor" ties to be shown on NBC Network (as FOX has done), and it's the Rags game. Every single fucking time.

[JamieMCFC]

Things will get worse if anything. NBC Sports will show 4 or 5 league games per matchday...no points for guessing which clubs will be featured every week. Between FSC, Setanta, and Setanta Xtra, we used to get 8-9 games per matchday. It's just a continual narrowing of league coverage, and although City may benefit slightly, I think it's a bad thing in principle. I will hate it even more when they pick "glamor" ties to be shown on NBC Network (as FOX has done), and it's the Rags game. Every single fucking time.

They are going to show 6-8 games on 3 different channels. They have only announced NBC Sports so far as one of the channels. They haven't announced the other 2 yet. The rest of the games will be available online.

[phips]

As an American, he's totally right. Casting aside all of the Latinos and Mexicans who will almost
certainly go for Barca or Real, the remaining Americans that follow football are usually bandwagoners...
meaning, they will follow the most successful team, i.e: United or Chelsea. The vast amount of
American football fans I run into, and there are a lot in the college system, are either United, Chelsea,
Barca, or Real fans.

To be fair though, unless you are already a fan and have ordered the Fox Soccer channels, the only club football
an American can see (without out going to a pub to specifically watch it) is on ESPN and those games are
almost always Chelsea or United (now City is getting added). Oddly enough, Barca and Real club matches are never
on TV here..even the clasico. Their games are only on ESPN Deportes or the Spanish language Fox Soccer, which
isolates a certain fan base.

This will change next year. NBC is taking over the rights from FOX and ESPN. The main channel showing games will be NBC Sports which is in a lot more homes than FOX Soccer and is a basic cable channel for most carriers.

Im really worried. I really hope City is still on. This year it is guaranteed that City will be on FSC or FSC+ every weekend for the Premier League and every CL game too. With NBC taking over I'm worried it could be all United. Fox Soccer was the best =[

[Michigan Blue]

With NBC taking over I'm worried it could be all United. Fox Soccer was the best =[

I actually think Setanta provided the best (and fairest) coverage. ESPN has also been pretty good although I once saw Sportscenter boil an entire weekend of PL fixtures down to one 30-second package of highlights from the Rags game.

FSC is a mixed bag. They promoted the "Blue Moon" film pretty heavily a couple of years ago, and Warren Barton has always been pretty pro-City. On the other hand they've become increasingly sycophantic towards the Rags. Their Twitter feed is almost comical in its bias and I think literally every PL game they've shown on the FOX network has been a United game. Also, watch the PL season highlights package they play at HT of every game on FS Plus. Notice anything strange? Yep, it's from the '10/'11 season, complete with the Rags hoisting the trophy. Farcical.

The fear of course is that NBC will be worse. I hadn't heard about these additional channels Jamie speaks of, but streaming 5 games online is not my idea of promoting the league in this country.

[phips]

With NBC taking over I'm worried it could be all United. Fox Soccer was the best =[

I actually think Setanta provided the best (and fairest) coverage. ESPN has also been pretty good although I once saw Sportscenter boil an entire weekend of PL fixtures down to one 30-second package of highlights from the Rags game.

FSC is a mixed bag. They promoted the "Blue Moon" film pretty heavily a couple of years ago, and Warren Barton has always been pretty pro-City. On the other hand they've become increasingly sycophantic towards the Rags. Their Twitter feed is almost comical in its bias and I think literally every PL game they've shown on the FOX network has been a United game. Also, watch the PL season highlights package they play at HT of every game on FS Plus. Notice anything strange? Yep, it's from the '10/'11 season, complete with the Rags hoisting the trophy. Farcical.

The fear of course is that NBC will be worse. I hadn't heard about these additional channels Jamie speaks of, but streaming 5 games online is not my idea of promoting the league in this country.

No idea what Setanta is. And I don't know what you're talking about up there ^ I haven't seen any of that. Of course they're gonna play every United game..but they also play every City game, Chelsea game, and many many others.

[Michigan Blue]

FOX network. As in, FOX. Not Fox Soccer.

[JamieMCFC]

No idea what Setanta is. And I don't know what you're talking about up there ^ I haven't seen any of that. Of course they're gonna play every United game..but they also play every City game, Chelsea game, and many many others.

Setanta USA stopped broadcasting in 2009. FOX took over the channel and it is now FOX Soccer Plus.

[phips]

getting multiple plays on ESPN.

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