This may be England’s third-largest city, but Manchester thinks of itself as second.
The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, one-time processor of 80 percent of the world’s cotton, Manchester has diversified and transformed itself into a tourist destination. Its rich cultural scene is highlighted by its contributions to rock n’ roll. Hugely popular bands have rolled off the city’s production line for more than 40 years, from the Hollies to the Smiths to Oasis.
There is a thriving gay community here, a large university and a statue of Abraham Lincoln. And at this very moment, 100 life-sized, individually decorated fiberglass cows adorn the city streets.
Manchester United ought to feel right at home in Chicago, where it will make a cameo appearance on Sunday. The Red Devils will face Germany’s Bayern Munich at Soldier Field in the opening match of their second consecutive U.S. summer tour. Man U goes on to Philadelphia and New York next week in what is likely to be the club’s last U.S. visit for at least three years.
The world’s most famous soccer team very much reflects its birthplace. Its marketing and competitive success have run parallel with and to some extent contributed to the reshaping of the city’s image over the last decade.
“You go virtually anywhere in the world and say you’re from Manchester, and people say, `Manchester United,”‘ said Andrew Stokes, managing director of Marketing Manchester, the city’s public relations arm.
“We recognize that Manchester United is one of the great sporting brands in the world. And when you’re trying to market a destination, anything that can affiliate you with such a strong brand has to be seen as a positive.”
A 1996 IRA bombing forced a complete makeover of the city center. After an unsuccessful Olympic bid, Manchester pressed forward by hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games, a multi-sport event second only to the Olympics in size. The city’s legacy was a plethora of new athletic facilities and rebuilt infrastructure that make it attractive for future events.
But as Chicago discovered when Michael Jordan’s Bulls made the city a household word in far-flung places, a team can be the most effective ambassador of all.
Research commissioned by the club indicates 50 million people worldwide consider themselves Man U fans. The club has 2 million fans and 515,000 e-mail addresses on its in-house database and counts 40,000 season ticket holders, some of whom live in Ireland and Malaysia and fly in for games. The club sold 2.5 million jerseys last year.
As a publicly held company, the club’s ledger is watched as closely as developments on the field. Although the majority of the team’s shareholders are small investors, Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer controls 19.2 percent of the club and has upped his share twice this year. Irish horse racing partners John Patrick McManus and John Magnier jointly hold another 28.8 percent. Takeover rumors get as much media play as trade talk.
For Joe Bloke, there are Man U mortgages, credit cards and insurance policies. The club owns a financial services branch, MU Finance, that is affiliated with several prestigious banks and markets itself with the slogan, “You win, we win.”
Victories on the field didn’t come so easily in the season just ended, however.
After an 11-year stretch in which Man U won eight league titles and numerous other cup championships–a stretch called a “purple patch” here–some of the color faded this year. Man U jettisoned celebrated midfielder David Beckham, lost defender Rio Ferdinand for much of the season to a drug-related suspension and finished a non-threatening third in the English Premier League.
Yet team marketing manager Peter Draper said he doesn’t expect the club’s support to erode much, if at all.
“Historically, our fans don’t go away,” Draper said. “We have a huge fan base. Even if some go away, we’ll still have a huge fan base.”
Founded by railway workers in 1878, the club began to build its reputation in the years after World War II. That progress was interrupted tragically in 1958 when 23 people, including nine players, were killed in a plane crash outside Munich.
Famed manager Matt Busby and the other survivors regrouped and, with players such as Bobby Charlton and George Best, became a powerhouse in the 1960s. Demoted to the second division briefly in the ’70s, Man U rebuilt again and entered its own modern era with the hiring of manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 1986.
Like any sporting behemoth, Manchester United engenders its share of vitriol. Much of it comes from the “Blues,” fans of cross-town rival Manchester City.
The Blues and Reds, whose loyalties don’t follow any particular geographic or socio-economic lines, are more alienated from one another than liberals and conservatives or perhaps even Cubs and Sox fans.
Blues claim their team is the true hometown club and disparage Man U’s multi-national following. The twice-a-year “Derby” (pronounced Darby), when the two teams meet, is as tense as any championship match no matter where the teams are in the standings.
Local bookstores display racks of Red and Blue fan-zines, whose contents range from soberly analytical to supremely vulgar.
City ‘Til I Cry, a Blue publication, recently lambasted fathers who have been unable to keep their children from becoming Man U fans.
“People like you are the sort of weak-kneed, spineless, yoghurt knitters that have put this country in such a state,” the anonymous writer opined.
For the most part, though, affiliation is hereditary and neither team makes converts within the Manchester city limits.
Draper said the phenomenal reception accorded last year’s Man U U.S. tour, which sold out stadiums in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles, persuaded club officials to come back. That, and the fact that despite the team’s cachet, its players still can walk the streets of major U.S. cities unrecognized.
“They can do a bit of shopping and not be pestered,” Draper said. “It’s very nice for them.”
The decision to return to the United States had to be weighed against the fact that many of the team’s best players went directly from the Premier League season into the European Championships in June, meaning almost no breather before preseason workouts.
Some big names may be missing from Man U’s roster during its U.S. visit as a result, but one key player should be in the net. Tim Howard, the New Jersey native who was voted the Premier League’s best goalkeeper last season in his first year in England, is expected to start.
Howard, a complete unknown in England before his arrival last summer, said his status as a Red involves both privilege and tremendous pressure.
“Once you sign, once you pull on that jersey, people are just like, `Well, if this person’s actually going to play for Man U, then he’s legitimate,'” Howard said last month. “I’m not necessarily convinced they love Tim Howard as much as they love the fact that I’m a player on the team they love.”
Man U selected Chicago as its opening site and only new stop after reviewing bids from other cities including Boston, Houston, Toronto and Pittsburgh. Ferguson, possibly the most second-guessed man in England outside of Prime Minister Tony Blair, personally toured Soldier Field.
“The benches with the references to all the soldiers, he was fascinated by that,” Draper recalled. “When we saw new Soldier Field, Chicago became a slam dunk.”
Club officials couldn’t find a training facility in Chicago that met their criteria, although they looked hard at Northwestern University. So Man U will use the Philadelphia Eagles’ complex as a temporary base and fly into Chicago the day before the game, then return to the East Coast. Man U’s unapologetic economic expansionism fits perfectly with the character of the city, according to one transplanted American.
Scott Burnham, a Boston native who runs Manchester’s cutting-edge URBIS museum devoted to urban culture, said his adopted home “has an incredible sense of adventure and innovation” stemming from its industrial heritage.
And even though Stokes is quick to point out there is much more to Manchester than United, he said the team’s success has helped the city position itself as “a sporting capital.”
“We like this association–it fits in with the Mancunian way,” Stokes said, using the old Roman nickname for the city’s denizens. “A little bit gutsy, working class, we’ll take things as they come.”
