With Melbourne City about to kick off their new A-League season, there has started to be a lot of interest in this ‘franchise’ being built by the City Football Group that now encompasses Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne and – to a much lesser extent – Yokohama F Marinos. But is it justified, branching out over continents like Starbucks and McDonalds have done before?
In previous columns I’ve written – regardless of whether they’ve been published or not – I like to think of football as a business. But looking past that, there might be some discomfort about franchising, giving football an all too business-like feel to some fans that aren’t used to it. There’s also worries to think about regarding fans that are having their team taken over, renamed and recolored, just like what happened to Melbourne City; started as Melbourne Heart in 2009, they were taken over by the CFG in January.
Of course, those fans aren’t likely to turn down the investment that the new owners are willing to put in, that has brought David Villa into the club on a 10-game contract from New York City among other stars. But the heritage of the club (perhaps not so much in the case of a club only formed 5 years ago, but the point still stands) is gone to some extent if the club completely changes its image.
On the other hand, we must look at the global exposure that these overseas ventures will give Manchester City, and the sister clubs in America and Australia. Ideally, fans of all three will take an interest in the other two, building up support as the City Football Group vies for success on three continents.
We can use the example of Yokohama F Marinos as an example of why City’s owners aren’t just interested in developing the image of the brand. The CFG bought a minor stake in the J-League club earlier this year, with the majority remaining with car company Nissan (who were announced as a sponsor of Manchester City a couple of months later). The purpose of the deal with Yokohama is to provide footballing advice to the Japanese club who currently lie 10th in their domestic league, but also to find any young talent – Masashi Wada had a two-week trial in England last month, with the under-18 side.
This isn’t the first time a franchise as such has been evident in football – Red Bull has been there and done that already. With teams in Leipzig, Salzburg, New York and an academy in Ghana (as well as teams in other sports such as Formula One and ventures into industries including music) Red Bull succeed in the marketing game. It’s fair to say the City Football Group are trying to emulate that to some level, building up the image of the brand. Needless to say, we probably won’t be seeing a City record label anytime soon.
Despite there being a wealth of teams in both America and Australia, it’s probably fair to say they’re markets that are relatively unexploited by Premier League teams. Fans of MLS and A-League take a keen interest in English teams but no-one has really tapped into that yet. Manchester United’s game against Real Madrid in America this summer showed the great potential in America, with 109,000 spectators in the ground alone.
With these two new teams, City will be hoping to exploit those markets. There’s a lot of money to be had from it, they just need to get there first.
So, is CFG’s franchising justified? On balance it probably is. It’s a tried-and-tested method that worked very well with Red Bull, and it is also giving fans in Melbourne and New York the chance to see great players like David Villa and Frank Lampard in action for themselves, when before they’d have had to watch them on TV. There’ll always be people who complain about it, but we need to face it – football is more than just a game; it’s a business.
