http://internationalchampionscup.com We're certainly putting in some miles this summer. July 17th - 23rd 3 games in the Far East then straight to the US, presumably, for this tournament starting on the 27th.
I'd like to know how much we get from these games. I know that the US tv rights were sold for the 5th highest price and it's thought of as an expanding lucrative market and that the rights just went to NBC who have promised to show every game free and to a far bigger audience than the previous Fox deal which you had to pay for so I guess there is some logic to it but all that traveling really can't help. Looking at that line up, Real, AC, Juve I guess a few clubs think it's worth while.
Can only be FFP related. Boost revenue etc, can't think of any other logical reason to have it so close to the beginning of the season.
I did a bit of digging and it looks like the fee we will receive will be around 1M with another 0.5M+ available in prize money. I think the exposure is the main objective. If you saw the St Louis game the crowd was nearly entirely Chelsea with a good percent in CFC shirts and gear. That's the real money spinner, get a new fan for life and increase our exposure and that of the sponsors/kit makers. With the new tv deal opening up massively the potential viewers in the US to be playing there just as the new deal gets going and advertised has to be a good thing for us and therefore FFP.
When I've been to the US I've been amazed at how popular we are out there. On par with Man Utd, Real and Barca. I criticism him a lot but Gourlay has don't an excellent job on that front.
