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Top-Level Exhibitions Shine Spotlight on USL

By NICHOLAS MURRAY - nicholas.murray@uslsoccer.com, 06/22/16, 4:02PM EDT

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Clubs break down process of bringing eight high-caliber international matchups


Photo courtesy Sacramento Republic FC

Next Tuesday night will bring the type of event the newly renovated Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City was meant to host when OKC Energy FC moved in, as Liga MX’s C.D. Guadalajara visits for the USL club’s first international exhibition in its short history.

But while there’s now less than a week to go before the likes of Omar Bravo take to the field, the process of putting the event together has been a long time coming. It took plenty of work for Energy FC General Manager Jason Hawkins and his staff to conceive and put into action.

Hawkins and Energy FC Director of Business Development John Allgood got the ball rolling. They used their contacts in sports business who had staged the sort of event that brought more than 11,000 fans to Round Rock, Texas’ Dell Diamond last July for an exhibition between Chivas and Pachuca to gain an understanding of what an event at Taft might entail. Later in the year, Hawkins and others headed to San Jose as Chivas took on Atlas in an exhibition at Avaya Stadium.

“Back in the October-November timeframe there was a large contingent of us who went out to San Jose when [Chivas] was getting ready to play at Avaya [Stadium],” Hawkins said this week. “We kind of dual-purposed it, we went out and met with the folks there at Avaya to see the stadium, and then we watched the game versus Atlas, and then actually had occasion to go to dinner with all of [Chivas’] senior leadership after that.”

From there, the conversation turned to business, with scheduling and logistics being hammered out between the two organizations before the official announcement arrived in April.

Energy FC’s exhibition is one of eight to have been announced this year that will see USL clubs face international opposition over the summer. From established clubs like the Richmond Kickers and Charleston Battery continuing what has now become a summer tradition, to teams like FC Cincinnati, the Charlotte Independence and Energy FC hosting their first events this year, the demand for games of this kind has steadily risen according to Beswicks North America President Barry MacLean.


Photo courtesy Steven Christy / OKC Energy FC

A full-service Sports Management agency that spans the globe – and an official partner of the USL – Beswicks has acted as an intermediary for numerous clubs in the United States and Great Britain. According to MacLean, while in the past the demand for games against teams from the English Premier League came predominantly from teams in Major League Soccer, USL clubs have come much more to the fore recently.

“What has happened in my opinion is the league has just got a real strength,” said MacLean. “There’s a fan base that’s really entrenched in all of those USL cities, and they have an appetite for the big games, so bringing a game to Cincinnati or Harrisburg or Louisville, San Antonio, those clubs are looking now because they want to do something that continues to grow the game in their communities.”

The Battery in particular have made the mid-summer exhibition one of the hallmarks of the club’s season, with Rangers F.C. the visitor to MUSC Health Stadium this July as it prepares for the club’s return to the Scottish Premier League this August.

With the reputation the club and city have built with teams from overseas, the Battery and President Andrew Bell enjoy being able to put on an event that both local and traveling fans will enjoy in terms of live action, and the chance to interact that wouldn’t ordinarily be available.

“The fans get to see teams up close and personal that usually they would only see on TV,” Bell said. “Our stadium is very intimate, so the fans are also very close to the action and can often interact with the visiting players and coaches. We are traditionally a very welcoming city and that extends to the way we welcome visiting teams and fans.”


Photo courtesy Kim Morgan Gregory / Charleston Battery

Putting together a tour such as that being made by the Premier League’s Swansea City AFC – which will visit the Independence and Kickers next month – does take work. For Beswicks, matching the right teams with the right situations is key, as is making sure the trip makes sense financially for all of the teams involved.

“It’s become quite complex, because the English teams are very structured in what they’re looking for,” said MacLean. “We’ve talked to a lot of the USL clubs as well as the English clubs, and what we try to do is put together a tour that can make sense for the dates that are available, for the locations that are complimentary to each other – the English clubs don’t want to travel all over the country – and also make sure that the clubs have the financial wherewithal to put something like this together, because it’s not an inexpensive endeavor.”

From Hawkins’ perspective, however, the strength of the clubs and new ownership groups joining the league may offer the potential for trips that exclusively see teams taking on USL opposition like Swansea’s to become more common.

“I think it’s going to be an exciting time for clubs, as much as we work together, to be able to partner some of these things together to be able to make it an even better business proposition over time,” said Hawkins. “The league is strong enough, but the clubs that you’re surrounding yourself with are also of the caliber that you truly can say ‘let’s put together a three-city tour for you guys’ that’s a USL tour that would expose you to some markets you haven’t been in.”

With the American soccer market continuing to grow each year, and the facilities on offer in terms of training, hotels and off-field entertainments, more and more clubs from overseas are looking at the United States as an ideal market to introduce their individual brands.


Photo courtesy Brian Zimmerman / Richmond Kickers

That said, with the way local fans are embracing their local clubs in greater numbers each year, while the likes of Crystal Palace, Swansea or Rangers might be the incoming attraction, the majority of those in attendance are coming nowadays as much to support their club as to see the overseas visitors. Players for teams like the Battery would like nothing more than to spring a similar result to Sacramento Republic FC’s victory against Sunderland AFC a year ago.

“I think [players and coaches] do enjoy them. It is nice break from the regular-season schedule and from a technical standpoint it gives our players a chance to show their qualities to teams from different countries and leagues,” said Bell. “People don't realize how hard it is to play at a high level during the summer in the U.S. and particularly down here in Charleston, where the humidity combines with high temperatures to create a very challenging environment. Our players are amazing athletes and they have always offered a stern test to visiting teams.”

For MacLean, the rise in the number of international exhibitions USL clubs are participating in and actively seeking out says much about how the league, and soccer in the United States as a whole, has blossomed.

“We really have an entrenched fan base in many, many communities now, and that’s only going in the right direction,” said MacLean. “It’s become a business at the USL level. I don’t think it’s a labor of love anymore. It’s something where people are making this into a business initiative, and the international matches, where you’re seeing 20,000 people [already] there for Crystal Palace, I can tell you only maybe 1,000 of those fans will be Crystal Palace supporters. The rest are coming because of Cincinnati’s club structure and what they’ve done. It’s magnificent what’s happened on this side of the Atlantic.”

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