Gang, sorry for the dearth of new postings. I’ve been insanely busy. Here’s some new stuff. As far as the ChampionsWorld Tour for 2004, I will be attending a press conference today at Niketown in NYC where ManU will be making an announcement regarding plans for next summer here in the States. At this point I’ve only heard fan speculation regarding Arsenal’s involvement. I’ve got a call in to Arsenal FC now to see if there is anything definitive…
Here’s Kelvin’s info…
It was reported in one of the Sunday papers that Arsenal and ManUre will play a tournament in New York next summer.
This was due to the “success” of Merchandising Utd’s last visit.
There is a total of ?5m prize money at stake.
If it goes ahead I’m not sure what sort of squad we’ll send out as the European Championships would have just finished and any decent player would be resting before the domestic season begins.
Wait and see.
12 Responses to “Arsenal Tour”
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November 11th, 2003 at 3:37 pm
I was at the press conference too. There was nothing said about any of the teams other than ManUre, but I asked Charlie (the Champions World guy) afterwards about the rumours and he gave the “impression” that Arsenal was one of the teams in discussions. They, obviously can’t confirm or deny anything until the discussions are over, but he definitely did NOT say NO…
Also, a friend of a friend who works for ManUre Direct @ OT said that Arsenal WERE one of the teams being invited but that they would be an alternate if Real Madrid choose to go to Asia again - which they might well do, it being potentially more lucrative…
Just my 2p’s worth…
Cheers,
Grahame.
November 11th, 2003 at 9:26 pm
I would FLY RUN WALK anywhere the Arsenal played in the USA…..
Just worried about who they’d send to play, seeing that the vast majority of our squad will be involved in Euro 2004…
its nice to dream though!
November 12th, 2003 at 12:10 am
According to Soccernet, no other English team is taking part, and one of the games will be against Real Madrid. Sites for the games will be Soldier Field, Chicago, Giants Stadium, New York plus one other to be mentioned although no games will be played on the west coast.
November 12th, 2003 at 1:10 am
Soldier Field, eh? Hmmm….
No matter who’s playing, might be worth going to see. not too far of a drive.
To, um, visit my folks. Of course. ahem.
— Geoff
November 12th, 2003 at 12:01 pm
They showed the Champions World Tour 2004
ceremony thing on Fox Sports World last night…
Alex Fergusmoan was there…
No other teams are announced / confirmed other than United… and the criteria for teams to play in the tour…(according the bloke who is in charge of the tour)… is that they are a big European club with big star players on the international level…
it does not RULE OUT Arsenal… and the announcers said that we were possible in the equation… Real is a first choice… but they are likely to return to ASIA where the are hugely popular and get a large cash windfall…
fingers crossed at the thought…
if we were smart on the marketing front, we would want to be in on this… we are BOTH sponsered by NIKE after all…
November 12th, 2003 at 10:33 pm
Let’s get this straight once and for all. Giants Stadium is in JERSEY!
November 13th, 2003 at 2:57 pm
Is there an e mail address we can start an email campaign to so that we can sway them into giving Arsenal more consideration. I’m not sure if the club itself is interested but an emailing campaign to the club to come would be nice as well. Maybe we can coordinate with other Arsenal boards, especially ones with significan North American members to e mail them.
November 13th, 2003 at 5:14 pm
After the great reception and financial windfall Manchester United received here in the US…
If Arsenal doesn’t see it…. or get it… then there is nothing 1000 emails is going to do…
They are aware of the success the Champions Tour was… we just lack marketing savvy… and don’t understand how to make $$…
November 13th, 2003 at 10:43 pm
What gets me is that Arsenal have been kitted out by NIKE (an American firm) for the last ten years, and not once have they offered to sponsor a pre-season tour out here to the U.S. yet as soon as they start kitting the gloryhunting northern scum they just can’t wait to bring them over. Talk about double standards here! As for Arsenal themselves they did play out here in 1989 in Miami plus I think their PR people were really impressed by the turnout that they received when they brought the Prem trophy and FA Cup out to California last March.
November 14th, 2003 at 2:26 pm
You’re right Stag, we are run by a stodgy conservative board. This where some good ole Yankee ingenuity and marketing can come in handy. They need that on the club. They were late in all kinds of things. The Arsenal site was late in chatrooms and technology.
When I get Bill Gates’ type of money, I’ll buy a signifcant chunk and bring us up to date. I can dream, can’t I?
November 17th, 2003 at 2:57 pm
We have to think long term. With ’soccer’ becoming more and more the game of choice for little kids and the popularity growing, the potential kit sales, etc. is huge. Look how much the NBA and NFL make off merchandising? Not saying we’d get anything near that but just a fraction is worth a lot of money. Man Utd see this. We need to as well. When these 7, 8 and 9 y.o. become adults they will support a club and that club will likely be Man Utd and a lot of those millions of kids will be buying kits. I went to the Man Utd v. Club America game and even the latin kids were wearing Man Utd shirts and their fathers were wearing Club America (a Mexcian club) shirts.
November 17th, 2003 at 9:26 pm
I see it as sort of a match in itself…..
and we are not even playing…. its like 11 on 0…
Arsenal aren’t even attempting to market themselves in the huge marketing areas of the USA
and Asia……
without the money…. we won’t be able to compete for signing top players… the cash won’t be there…
and the gap will simply widen…
in reality……. its amazing we still compete on the same level right now……
but come January…. when the transfer window opens….. you can rest assured that Man United won’t be standing pat…..