How Chelsea plan to conquer America by signing Christian Pulisic, who will earn club £100m in new US sponsors
Chelsea's new £58million transfer buy gives them a massive foothold in the lucrative American market, where football is rivalling basketball and baseball among the young
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CHELSEA look set to earn big bucks from new commercial opportunities in the US thanks to the signing of Christian Pulisic.
The 20-year-old American forward, bought from Borussia Dortmund for £58million, will begin playing for the Blues next season after being loaned back to the German club for the rest of this term.
As well as being a huge talent Pulisic is highly marketable and Chelsea are aiming to attract millions of new fans in his home country.
A big following in the States could be converted into major additional revenue.
Having fans overseas helps Premier League clubs attract all sorts of new sponsors – something that Manchester United in particular have got down to a fine art.
United remain top of Football 50, an annual league table of the world’s most valuable football clubs produced by Brand Finance.
In the most recent edition, released last May, Chelsea ranked seventh, with Manchester City in fifth and Liverpool sixth. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were in eighth and tenth respectively.
In 2017 the Blues said they are aiming to double their total revenue in the next ten years, and a key focus is getting new commercial deals with premium brands.
In the year to the end of June 2018, Chelsea’s total turnover was £443m, compared with £590m at Manchester United.
If Pulisic proves a major success on the pitch, he could help the Blues achieve their aim and close the gap financially on some of their Prem rivals as they grow in the US.
Declan Ahern, sports consultant at Brand Finance, told SunSport that the American starlet alone can earn Chelsea at least £20m per year in additional sponsorship revenue.
If Pulisic stays at Stamford Bridge for the duration of his contract that would add up to at least £100m – and it could potentially be much more than that.
The player has signed a five-and-a-half-year deal, with the first half-year covering his loan spell back at Dortmund.
Ahern said: "There is an indirect benefit Chelsea could unlock through Pulisic in attracting more sponsors at a higher fee in new geographies i.e. the US.
“It is very difficult to speculate just how lucrative that could be, but incrementally we are certainly talking about tens of millions [of pounds] each year.”
Ahern says that Chelsea will also benefit from significant new shirt sales if Pulisic performs well.
“They will likely sell a large number of shirts within the first season due to the excitement of a new arrival and the expectations,” he says.
“Shirt sales from that point will be largely based on how Pulisic performs at Chelsea.”
He adds that the Blues can also get the skilful forward to promote the Chelsea brand in the US through his social media accounts – a key way of attracting new commercial income.
Pulisic already has 1.4 million followers on Instagram, another 218,500 on Twitter and 210,000 on Facebook.
Chelsea launched its own US Twitter account –
Top overseas Premier League players tend to drive a big increase in their club’s following in their home country.
In Egypt, Mo Salah has had a huge impact for Liverpool, for example.
Almost 40million Egyptian fans were praying for his team’s victory over Napoli in their decisive Champions League game in December, according to a report by Egyptian journalist Abdelaziz Abuhamar for Inside World Football.
In the US, which has a population of 327 million, football still has to fight for attention among traditional American sports, but its popularity has tripled over the last decade, according to Gallup.
It published a survey last year which found that football was the second most popular spectator sport among 18 to 34 year-olds in the country.
And for all adults it ranked just below the big three of American sports (basketball, baseball and American football).
Of those surveyed, 7 per cent listed football as their favourite sport to watch, compared with 9 per cent for baseball, 11 per cent for basketball and 37 per cent for American football.
More and more Americans are watching MLS matches, and Ahern says: “The avid US fans also follow European football and tend to support a European ‘power-house’ club as well as their domestic club.”
Top European sides, including Premier League teams, play pre-season games in the States each year as part of the International Champions Cup.
At the 2014 tournament, the game between and at set a record attendance of 109,318 for a football match in the US.
Chelsea have long been aiming to capture the growing Premier League audience in the States.
Since Roman Abramovich bought the Blues in 2003 they have travelled to America almost every summer.
There are now Chelsea supporters clubs across the country, and throughout the year fan events are held regularly with executives and former players.
Chelsea’s profile in the States has also lifted over recent years due to a number of ex-players appearing in the MLS, such as Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole.
Once he starts playing in a Chelsea shirt Pulisic is expected to inspire millions more Americans to follow the Premier League and the Blues in particular.
Jake Cohen, a sports lawyer, has predicted that the most watched Premier League match ever in the US will be the American’s first Chelsea game against another top Prem club.
The biggest TV audience in the States for a Prem match so far was last April’s Manchester derby, which attracted 1.7 million viewers.
James Dow, a football finance expert at Dow Schofield Watts, told SunSport that there is huge room for growth for the Premier League in the US.
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He explains that while America is an important market for the English top flight, in financial terms at the moment it’s still only as valuable as Scandinavia or Sub-Saharan Africa.
“The Far East is the main market for most clubs and the Premier League,” he says.
A key issue in the States is that its time zone is several hours behind the UK, meaning that Premier League matches are often on very early in the morning.
“The US is 5-7 hours behind which means potential viewing figures are significantly lower,” Dow says.
That could change, however, due to reported plans that may move Champions League games to the weekend and shift a large number of Premier League matches to midweek – which would mean later kick-off times in the States.