5 Ways Manchester City Are Seeking to Expand Their Global Empire in America

Manchester City's global profile has risen in the past few years, but it is significantly short of where the club's ownership and management want it to be.

Each of the past two summers, Forbes has published its annual list of the Top 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams. In 2012, Manchester United Football Club topped the list. Real Madrid and Barcelona came in at No. 2 and No. 8 respectively.

Bayern Munich was No. 11; one can easily imagine that Bayern will crack the top 10 on this list following their recent Champions League victory.

From the Premier League, Arsenal (No. 10) and Chelsea (No. 46) also made the list in 2012.

Manchester City did not.

Efforts are underway, however, to expand Manchester City's global empire and, presumably, their commercial reach and value. The United States of America is but one of those new frontiers.

Creation of New Major League Soccer Franchise, New York City FC

Manchester City's recent announcement of their creation from the ground up of a new Major League Soccer franchise, New York City FC, was made with global expansion in mind.

The Sky Blues have some global cachet, but very little presence in North America.

City's significant investment in buying into MLS, and putting the team in the largest city in the United States, will ultimately combine to put Manchester City "on the map" in the States in a big way.

The potential advantages are many, but perhaps the biggest one is the chance for City to have year-round exposure.

Premier League matches will be televised in the States in greater numbers starting with the 2013-14 season. Once NYC FC begin play, City will have their club crest and related insignias splashed all over American television during the Premier League's fallow summer as well.

As the Premier League itself taps into the underexploited American market, Manchester City wants to seize on the momentum for itself.

Alliance with New York Yankees

Further underscoring Manchester City's desire to draw attention from North American fans was the partner they chose to align the fledgling New York City FC with.

City's alliance with Major League Baseball's New York Yankees (No. 3 on Forbes' 2012 list of the Top 50 Most Valuable Sports Franchises) "is designed to smooth Manchester City’s entry into the New York metropolitan market and help bolster the Yankees’ soccer credentials," per the New York Times.

This choice of partner was not an accident. Manchester City are an English and European presence.

The New York Yankees, though, are a baseball team known all over the world, again per Forbes.

American Friendlies with Chelsea

Manchester City completed their largely disappointing Premier League campaign on May 19 with a dispirited home loss to a decidedly average Norwich City club.

Having finished the season with an interim manager, coming off a failed defense of the Premier League crown and the loss of the FA Cup to now-relegated Wigan Athletic, it would be easy to imagine Manchester City's players looking forward to some time away from the game.

Yet there the Sky Blues were, playing friendlies against Chelsea in St. Louis and New York the following week.

Putting a Major League Soccer team in New York is a fine plan, but at one level there is no substitute for the real thing.

Bringing the genuine article to the States was another calculated move by Manchester City's ownership group to develop American interest in the Sky Blues.

Football Academies

Per a March story in the Manchester Evening News, the Sky Blues are spreading awareness of football well beyond the United Kingdom.

"They already run coaching centres in cities including Miami, Los Angeles...after they doubled the size of their soccer school in their owner’s Abu Dhabi homeland," Mike Keegan writes in that story.

Manchester City also has their own academy which draws players from around the world with the intent of developing young (read also as "cheap") talent into first-team performers.

In conjunction with the creation of New York City FC in Major League Soccer, City anticipates further developing their beneficent relationship with inner-city youth soccer programs.

There is no better way to expand Manchester City's global brand than by getting in front of the next generation of footballers in a positive way.

Internet Presence

According to the club's 2011-12 annual report, "Manchester City is increasingly harnessing digital media to engage with football fans worldwide. The Club has attracted large numbers of overseas fans to its official Facebook fan page and YouTube channel."

The report further notes that visits to the club's web site, mcfc.co.uk, from users outside the United Kingdom "were up by almost 50% in the 2011-12 season, with overseas visitors accounting for almost half of all visits to the site."

Unquestionably, Manchester City's forays into the United States will have to be led as much by their television and online presences as they will ever be live or in person.

Manchester City must try to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with virtual presence to make up for their geographic distance.