[Albion] Why are we doing this US tour?

[trueblue]

Much as we consider pre-season friendlies a load of tosh, I think these overseas tours get a lot of global attention. At its most basic, even the extra exposure for Amex has to be a good thing for the club. They’re a great sponsor to have on board and keep happy.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

We're saving the planet flight by flight, and doing far less damage to the depleted ozone layer than NSC's resident frequent carbon emitting flying narcissist/egotist Herr Tubthumper, let it go.
That said, it is an odd one, as we're hardly going to establish 'our brand' in the USA off the back of this tour. More tactical assault rifles are going to be sold in Walmart per hour than BHA shirts per year.

 

[HeaviestTed]

It's a nice little jolly for the team and staff, we all deserve a bit of fun before we face the luton.

 

[Taybha]

5 loyalty points

 

[dazzer6666]

I’m struggling to understand what value we will get from this US tour.

On the sporting side, we’ll be playing a Newcastle side on 29 July and then having to fly our squad home to start the season two weeks later.

On the commercial side, I hardly see this as helping us to sell more shirts stateside.

I just don’t think this is what’s needed on the eve of our most important top flight season.

Is it a good move or a bad one?

6 hours in business class isn’t going to have much impact on a player’s performance in a game 2 weeks later. Aside from the PR, exposure, brand awareness etc it’s also a good team bonding opportunity

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

I’m struggling to understand what value we will get from this US tour.

On the sporting side, we’ll be playing a Newcastle side on 29 July and then having to fly our squad home to start the season two weeks later.

On the commercial side, I hardly see this as helping us to sell more shirts stateside.

I just don’t think this is what’s needed on the eve of our most important top flight season.

Is it a good move or a bad one?

It's all about recruiting fans globally.

And it's working, our game against Newcastle in July in New Jersey has already sold out, a month in advance.

We are currently 13th highest in the league in twitter followers, with just 874k followers worldwide. Man Utd are leading with 35.8m.

KPMG Football Benchmark Analysis research shows that in 2019/20 Europe's biggest clubs earned between £2 and £4 on average per social media follower.

Last year Manchester United earned £593m, £266m of that was from its commercial revenue, That's non football related deals. The bigger the club, the bigger the fanbase, the more lucrative the deals available are.

There is a direct link between a football club's social media following and it's commercial revenue. The more people our club has following them on twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the greater the demand for brand association and the more Paul Barber can charge for sponsorship and the more deals he can do.

The more we can grow our fanbase and drive up our social media footprint, the more revenue we can generate from non football related commercial opportunities and the more we can compete with the likes of Man Utd.

By touring the world spreading the gospel of De Zerbi Ball then the bigger our fanbase will become. This will directly enhance our budget, meaning we could pay more and give us a better chance of holding on to our best players in future.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Comes with the territory of being a top Premier league team.

Can we just revel in the fact the we morphing into this beautiful beast, that’s able to fly to far away lands and spread our blue & white seed across the planet for all to see.

Gone are the days of Longford Town away….

 

[Worried Man Blues]

but you never will sell a lot of shirts if you don't have any....

But we've got many boxes of them, allegedly.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

We're saving the planet flight by flight, and doing far less damage to the depleted ozone layer than NSC's resident frequent carbon emitting flying narcissist/egotist Herr Tubthumper, let it go.
That said, it is an odd one, as we're hardly going to establish 'our brand' in the USA off the back of this tour. More tactical assault rifles are going to be sold in Walmart per hour than BHA shirts per year.

If you’re going to call out @Herr Tubthumper, at least tag him in your post so that he can see it.

Unnecessarily personal.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

We're saving the planet flight by flight, and doing far less damage to the depleted ozone layer than NSC's resident frequent carbon emitting flying narcissist/egotist Herr Tubthumper, let it go.

My flights are carbon neutral I emit plenty of hot air, but not carbon.

 

[southstandandy]

Its been reported this will make the Albion about £10m for the 3 games and as others have said raises our profile around the world, plus gives us a good standard of pre-season games.

 

[SteveU]

$$$$

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

If you’re going to call out @Herr Tubthumper, at least tag him in your post so that he can see it.

Unnecessarily personal.

A lesson learnt Pogue, cheers.

 

[nickbrighton]

I dont see any real negatives to this. It appears we will make £10 million from preseason, instead of costing the club money, we play a higher standard of teams in preaseason-if @southstandandy is correct. Gain more exposure which as pointed out previously is good for the club.

I can recall people asking why we DONT do these preseason tours a few years ago, as games against 2nd division french or spanish teams werent a real test

This tour started planning a couple of years ago, they arent something that can be thrown together in a couple of months, its part of who we are now. With aspirations to be regularly in the top reaches of the top league, the days of the first, or second 11 playing matches at Worthing and Lewes preseason are long gone

 

[chaileyjem]

Will three friendly games have much impact on who kids choose to support? Will there be a lot of fanfare around the games?

They're all sold out or close to selling out .
More on the background to this via https://www.brightonandhovealbion.c...ewcastle-first-summer-series-game-to-sell-out

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Our profile is definitely growing in the US. I was visiting Martha's Vineyard last week and saw an American guy wearing an Albion shirt. Said he's a big fan after seeing us on tv and reading up on our history.

Every PL game is available, so people pick a team (like the mad fella in NYC that sings)

The US is a huge commercial opportunity and will continue to increase our fanbase. Japan next summer?

Indeed.

Also, playing to a packed stadium a long way away, days before a league match? Get used to being a top six club, playing European football. If we are lucky.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Air Miles.

Keeping hold of those Silver/Gold cards is tougher than you think these days

 

[Bakero]

It's all about recruiting fans globally.

And it's working, our game against Newcastle in July in New Jersey has already sold out, a month in advance.

We are currently 13th highest in the league in twitter followers, with just 874k followers worldwide. Man Utd are leading with 35.8m.

KPMG Football Benchmark Analysis research shows that in 2019/20 Europe's biggest clubs earned between £2 and £4 on average per social media follower.

Last year Manchester United earned £593m, £266m of that was from its commercial revenue, That's non football related deals. The bigger the club, the bigger the fanbase, the more lucrative the deals available are.

There is a direct link between a football club's social media following and it's commercial revenue. The more people our club has following them on twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the greater the demand for brand association and the more Paul Barber can charge for sponsorship and the more deals he can do.

The more we can grow our fanbase and drive up our social media footprint, the more revenue we can generate from non football related commercial opportunities and the more we can compete with the likes of Man Utd.

By touring the world spreading the gospel of De Zerbi Ball then the bigger our fanbase will become. This will directly enhance our budget, meaning we could pay more and give us a better chance of holding on to our best players in future.

Indeed. We have about 1 million followers on Instagram. By contrast, Xavi Simons, the 20-year old Dutchman who we were linked with yesterday, has 5 million.

 

[sparkie]

It's about slaying the "little old Brighton" dragon.

Pushing global awareness, fixing our status as a PL team in subconscious minds. Making us "better known" - which in turn helps with convincing overseas players to join us.

 

[Barham's tash]

Spondulics.

We will be paid handsomely to attend, I believe something in the order of £5-7m.

Perhaps a certain finance bore can confirm?