Celtic, Dundee Can Expect Altered U.S. Landscape

Last month’s announcement that Dundee and Celtic are exploring the possibility of playing a Ladbrokes Premiership game in the United States prompted a rash of articles in the Scottish media speculating on branding opportunities, expanded global footprints and the mass of Irish American sports fans supposedly in need of satiation by the skills of Scotland’s finest.

A harsh reality awaits both clubs if the Scottish Professional Football League grants its approval for its first overseas contest. American fans have been bombarded for years by summer tours from the world’s richest clubs. Manchester United and Real Madrid set a U.S. attendance record in 2014 when over 109,000 people watched their friendly in Michigan. Barcelona, Chelsea, the Milan giants and Mexican powerhouse Chivas have all played before 70,000-plus crowds in recent years and fans across North America follow these teams intensely through myriad cable channels and web streaming services.

American consumers are overwhelmed with choices on which to spend their entertainment dollars. It’s tough to imagine any football team from Scotland creating so much as a ripple when sports fans are already drowning with options.

Celtic have taken part in preseason jamborees in the past. The Bhoys lost to Real Madrid in August 2012 before a crowd of 34,000 at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field with Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly receiving more of the audience’s gasps than Kris Commons. Philadelphia was one of two cities mooted as a possible destination for the Scottish league’s foreign soiree. U.S. census data suggests that about 14 percent of Philadelphians consider themselves as Irish Americans making this the largest ethnic group in the city. Philadelphia also boasts the second-largest Irish American population in the country behind Boston.

Both cities and others around the U.S. and Canada with a historically Irish influence do boast Celtic supporters’ clubs that regularly gather in bars to watch their team in action. We’re talking about dozens or hundreds of people in each branch though. Drawing tens of thousands of fans to a stadium seems wildly optimistic when hints of fatigue toward touring sides are beginning to show. Fiorentina and Paris Saint-Germain only pulled 16,000 fans to Red Bull Arena in New Jersey this past summer despite the attractions of local product Giuseppe Rossi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Finding the appropriate time to play the game would present another headache for Scottish clubs. The aforementioned summer tours would still steal the limelight away from any SPFL clashes in August, and Celtic’s availability would likely be curbed by European commitments. Travelling later in the year throws up clashes with the college football and NFL seasons. Harsh northeast winter rules out January and February while March sees America’s sporting calendar turn to the opening of the baseball season. Too much is at stake any later in the season to move the game away from the home fans at either Dens Park or Parkhead. Major League Soccer has struggled mightily for two decades to find space in the crowded American sports market. It seems unlikely that two Scottish teams could shift the needle.

The NFL’s success in staging regular season games at Wembley Stadium has widened the eyes of many European club executives looking for a slice of the lucrative U.S. market. American football benefits from the novelty of being played in very few countries and the NFL is unrivaled in its status as the sport’s best league. Our version of football does not carry such weight. Increasingly savvy American fans are well versed in the world’s best players and clubs. The days of expecting to turn up and draw massive crowds of curious onlookers are long gone.

Ian Thomson is a journalist and exiled Dons fan based in Pittsburgh. Follow him on Twitter at @SoccerObserver.