Super Clubs Move In on M.L.S. This Summer.The European powers will muscle in on Major League Soccer’s season by staging a one-week, six-city tournament from July 19 to 26, featuring three of the continent’s best teams and one of Mexico’s premier clubs.
Chelsea FC, AC Milan, Internazionale Milano and Club America will play a round-robin tournament as part of a preseason American tour designed to expand the clubs’ international footprint.
“It gives us the opportunity to really capitalize on the growing support of the game,” said Peter Kenyon, the chief executive of Chelsea. “It’s utilizing the team — on the back of broadcast — to go and support football development, soccer development, and also allow our fans, who are an ever-growing number, to come and touch the holy grail if you like.”
The teams will play at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.; the Georgia Dome in Atlanta; Baltimore’s MT&T Bank Stadium; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.; Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif.; and the new Cowboys Stadium in Texas. All games will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2, as well as the Spanish-language network, ESPN Deportes, and online at ESPN360.com
Before the foreign teams play each other at those sites, many will face M.L.S. competition. A.C. Milan has a friendly match scheduled for July 19 against the L.A. Galaxy, and Kenyon said that Chelsea will play the Sounders, the M.L.S. newcomers, in Seattle before its first match against Inter Milan on July 21 in Pasadena. That will mark the first time Chelsea will face its former manager, Jose Mourinho, who now coaches Inter.
Kenyon said the tournament — which will be run by C.A.A. Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency under the name of the World Football Challenge — gives teams like Chelsea the opportunity to connect with fans who may only get the chance to follow the club online or on TV.
“The EPL is the most watched league in the world,” he said on Tuesday, before the official announcement of the summer program. “Broadcasting has enabled clubs to grow their international reach in terms of the number of fans. And it also brings with it the opportunity, and the demands of those fans wanting to not only travel half the world to come to Stamford Bridge, to England, but the ability to take those fans out, which really cements the relationship.”
(Look for more on Chelsea’s international efforts and how British club have been a model for other big foreign teams looking to expand to new markets.)
Several of the sites are N.F.L. stadiums fitted with artificial turf designed to withstand the rough-and-tumble American football game. But the synthetic surface makes for lousy soccer, and it’s unlikely that elite players for top teams would be keen to play on the surface, despite it being approved by FIFA. It’s expected that the fields would be re-surfaced with natural grass.
Here is a schedule of the World Football Challenge with TV times indicated. Tickets are available through worldfootballchallenge.com.
Sunday, July 19
Club America vs. FC Internazionale Milano at Stanford Stadium (Palo Alto, Calif.)
7 p.m. EST on ESPN2
Tuesday, July 21
Chelsea FC vs. FC Internazionale Milano at the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.)
11 p.m. EST on ESPN2
Wednesday, July 22
AC Milan vs. Club America at the Georgia Dome (Atlanta, Ga.)
7 p.m. EST on ESPN2
Friday, July 24
AC Milan vs. Chelsea FC at M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore, Md.)
8 p.m. EST on ESPN
Sunday, July 26
AC Milan vs. FC Internazionale Milano at Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
5 p.m. EST on ESPN2
Sunday, July 26
Chelsea FC vs. Club America at Dallas Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
7 p.m. EST on ESPN2
Original Source : http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/super-clubs-move-in-on-mls-this-summer/
