New York City FC: The New Blues

With all the money Manchester City have gained in the last five years, there has come a new-found global appeal, which in recent times the senior staff at City have decided to capitalise on, with the announcement and planning of New York City Football Club, a new franchise in the Major League Soccer, the top division of North American ‘soccer’ (or football, as you call it if you have sense).

This new team will be linked with the Manchester version of City particularly closely, despite being based some way across the pond. They will start playing in the 2015-16 season, alongside teams who’ve been going much longer in the American league. For me, it was a surprise when this was announced by City a while back, not least because I’m not a huge fan of the MLS, but also because it’s a new concept.

One of the big benefits that it’ll bring for Manchester City is that some of the young stars who may come through in New York will be able to make the jump to the Premier League, and train with some of the best young players in the country over here, such as Marcos Lopes. This will surely benefit not only City (because they’ll get some high-quality young players for next to nothing), but also the American national team, as the youngsters will arguably be in much better hands than if they were to stay in America.

City’s senior staff such as chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak must be licking their lips ahead of the launch of this project. In my opinion, America is a relatively unexploited market by European clubs, with many choosing to focus on the Asian market instead, so this will bring more money into the coffers of the City hierarchy, because they’ll be more focussed on it than other clubs such as Manchester United are.

Personally, I like the way that some of City’s former players are taking up positions in New York’s latest football club. Former City and US midfielder Claudio Reyna has taken a position as the director of football with the MLS franchise, whilst current Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano (who is also the former vice-president at FC Barcelona) has taken up a temporary role as the CEO of the New York club.

Of course, it’s not just the blue half of Manchester who hold an interest in this. Despite being the minority owner, baseball giants the New York Yankees have also been involved in the opening of the franchise. Personally I’m not entirely sure how involved they’ll be with the club – due to it being in a different sport and all – and perhaps they just see it as a business prospect, with a chance to build a good working relationship with City (Manchester, that is).

I think the MLS chiefs will be quite pleased with this deal to be honest. Often the American league gets criticised by European fans – including myself – but this new clubs could certainly increase interest in the league, especially from Manchester City fans who will be interested in their club’s latest project in the States.

Vice versa, it could also bring more interest in Manchester City from across the Atlantic. People who are fans of the NYCFC project could be quite eager to become more familiar with the club who made it happen, and whilst this may not be my favourite thing in the world, the financial benefits for the Citizens could be massive – that makes it acceptable. I’ve already met fans who’re taking more of an interest in City because of the project, and this is before it’s even properly got going, so the early signs are good.

This isn’t the first time that a big European club has tried to make a move into the MLS. In December 2008, MLS commissioner Don Gerber announced that FC Barcelona had made a bid to start an expansion team in Miami, which would begin playing in 2010, but unfortunately this project fell through in the planning stages. There were also rumours that Barça has initially thought about a New York franchise, but decided against it.

As the start of playing for this new team draws ever closer (with the 2015 MLS season the target), I’m sure I won’t be the only European fan taking notice of the 20^th MLS franchise, and this could be the start of something very beneficial to all parties. There is a chance that this venture could fail completely, but with the big boys in charge seemingly knowing what they’re doing, the chances of that are minimal. It’s still a couple of years until we start to see this in its full form, but it’s looking exciting so far. All systems go? I think so. NYCFC OK.