Manchester City: What New York City FC Means for Sky Blues' Global Operation

Manchester City's past 12 months have been littered with ill-fated decisions, but the club's recent investment in a Major League Soccer franchise in New York City may yet redeem them all.

The club brought you:

• Mario Balotelli being sold, leaving City thin at striker for much of the season once Sergio Aguero started getting hurt
• Roberto Mancini screwing around with three defenders in Champions League play like it was some kind of dress rehearsal
• A Fergie time loss of a derby at the Etihad
• Colossal no-shows at Sunderland, Southampton and Queens Park Rangers
• The piece-de-resistance, an el foldo against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup final

Now it brings you its first really good idea since Mancini brought all four strikers on to finish the last match of the 2011-12 season.

This plan is so good, some of the benefits do not spring immediately to mind. They are subtle, like hints of French oak in good Cabernet Sauvignon.

That is why this piece is a slideshow. This deal is so smart it should be savored, not gulped.

A Rivalry Is Born

Manchester City's creation of a Major League Soccer franchise in New York City will create opportunities for the organization to test young players and coaches in meaningful matches without risking Premier League standing.

Starting, of course, with the matches against the New York Red Bulls.

In the Sports Illustrated story about the launch of New York City FC, the topic of creating a rival for the Red Bulls was sort of soft pedaled.

Per MLS commissioner Don Garber: "The Red Bulls now will have a rival here in the market providing them with that derby-like competition that is such a driver of what makes football so successful around the world."

That was a nice way of putting it. Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke had a slightly less diplomatic take, according to Franco Panizo of MLSsoccer.com.

“They’re the new guys coming in and I’m looking forward to smashing them in 2015...I love this league, and I think expansion is a [good] thing but now that they have come where we are we’ll welcome them, hopefully, with a smashing,” Petke sweetly said.

Well then. Game on.

Additional Developmental Opportunities

Mind you, this is not to say that Manchester City's U21 players will now be shipped off to the States every summer.

The reserve team has a lot of advantages, proximity to Manchester and the club's Premier League coaching staff being at the top of the list. 

Then again, Manchester City is not like most clubs who struggle with depth and occasionally have to plug an untested player in out of necessity. Yes, Matija Nastasic won his job this past season in much that manner, but City had plenty of options at the time. They just didn't much like any of them.

Anyway, while new general manager Claudio Reyna has indicated that New York City FC's players should be driven young Americans (via USA Today: "This club is in the United States so I want American players who are ambitious and who want to represent on the national team"), City would certainly have the option to send a young player over in the Premiership's offseason for live action in the summer.

New York City FC and MLS could be a footballing equivalent to winter baseball leagues in Mexico and Venezuela for North American major league baseball teams.

Doing Good While Doing Well

We need not pretend that there is nothing better billionaires love more than giving their money away. More likely, there is nothing better billionaires love more than raking those billions in.

Still, there are human, philanthropic (and sometimes tax-based) reasons to spread wealth.

As the New York Times recounted in its recent piece on Claudio Reyna, Manchester City has been sowing charitable seeds in the Big Apple for awhile now.

It was certainly no accident that the big announcement of New York City FC's incipience was held at P.S. 72 in East Harlem, where Manchester City had already built a rooftop soccer field.

Like many major metropolitan areas—Manchester itself being no exception—New York City has a nearly unlimited number of depressed pockets where an infusion of charitable giving will make a difference.

Manchester City is exceptionally likely to seek some of those places out with the intent of making a difference for the better. The favorable press that usually follows will not hurt anyone, either.

Cross-Branding with a Bigger Name

Remember, it is never acceptable to shoot the messenger. So my message is this: Manchester City's profile is definitely on the rise, but it is nowhere near where the club wants it to be.

Forbes has released its annual list of the Top 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams in July each of the last two years. In 2012, Manchester United Football Club topped the list.

Arsenal (No. 10) and Chelsea (No. 45) also made the list in 2012.

Manchester City did not.

Coming in at No. 3 behind United and Real Madrid? Manchester City's minority partner in New York City FC, the New York Yankees.

Manchester City wants to break in with the popular kids, and latching onto a global sporting force like the Yankees is not a bad way to go about doing it.

There Is No Offseason

The real genius behind New York City FC is this: Manchester City's brand will be on television and in the news all year long.

Many football fans are doubtlessly experiencing some football withdrawal with the Premier League season over.

But then summer comes, and other pastimes are revisited, and pretty soon it's July and you haven't thought about Manchester City Football Club for weeks. And you probably won't until the team starts playing again.

With NYC FC, though, Manchester City has literally created a house organ that will sound through the summer, when its Premier League club is dormant.

City will definitely be sure to have the club crest evident around the stadium, on billboards, in commercials, et cetera.

Beyond all else, all this new exposure will likely pay the deepest dividends from Manchester City's creation of NYC FC.

Especially if they win.