Football United - July 2014 West Ham and Newcastle visit

Arsenal!!!!

I imagine that it would cost a fair bit of money due to the distance that the club would have to travel (although only 3.5 hours more that Aus where Liverpool and Man Utd went last off-season) but also the climate.  Although it seems that the main reason for these trips is to make cash, I think that the clubs still want nice weather and good facilities to ensure that the players can have quality training sessions.  With the spreading of the internet these days, I am sure even the most backward clubs in the UK can do some investigation and see that July in Wellington can be pretty miserable.

My prediction is that it will be WBA and/or Aston Villa.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/9639094/Phoenix-chasing-Arsenal-for-July-tie

Seems I wasn't the only one looking at who Huawei are partnered with in the BPL.

They probably saw your post and wrote an article on it. 

I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at what the average mid-table Prem sides do in their off-seasons, but do they travel? The big guns always do Asia/US but how many of the small fish do?

I would be very happy for it to be West Brom

A lower third EPL team to get the EPL snobs in and hopefully persuade them to come to more nix games if the nix put up a good show.

EPL, nothing. Let's get AFC Wimbledon over! Most people have heard of them, we'd probably win, and we can bond over how much we miss Smeltzy.

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Stoke went to the US last year.I don't know why i know that.
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I will go and watch any EPL side except Sjoke City. I dont think that they will be a crowd puller anyway.

I think it really needs to be a top 10-type team. Either well known like Man U or good like City or Arsenal. 

I wonder if Man City will be going to Melbourne now for a game against their new subsidiary?

Will be interesting to see if Victory fans go to a Heart v Man City game and if they do who has the home town support.

West ham won't be a Prem side by then.

United please we can probably beat them.

As would Man U, Citeh, Liverpool and Chelski.

I think a decent showing against one of those teams would be better than beating a lowly EPL one. 

Dream on.

Stranger things have happened. They will hardly be trying. But yeah - I think we'll lose big either way, so may as well be a popular team.

Deportivo Wanka FTW!

Exceptional Peruvian League?

Some people are talking of "making money" from these fixtures, as far as I know the big teams take the whole gate.

I think Domey said at one of the Fan Focus group that Liverpool took the entire gate from their game with Victory, it's not a money making venture as far as I can tell, but it is something to try and get more fans into watching the club longer term.

I could be wrong here, but pretty sure that was the case as it stood in last off season.

OK, so if it isn't making money, did LA Galaxy result in extra bums on seats in the following season?

That's because for all intents and purposes, it was a Liverpool home game. They did all the organising and everything. That's why they got all the money.

If we pull off a deal where it is our home game and we pay them an appearance fee, then we could make a decent profit.

I get that for the Liverpool vs Victory game, but from what Domey said that was the only way to get Liverpool here, and the way he was talking it sounded similar for other large teams.

As for the Huawei connection. and having a sponsor willing to put in, that could make a big difference to the situation, but I don't know.

Arsenal have history here. Last season they went to vietnam for a game funded by a wealthy benefactor. Don't know a lot about him but apparently he's a fairly unsavoury character.

So obviously they'll take the pingers from whoever, an official sponsor even more so you would think... 

Arsenal usually head to Asia but just trawling the net, and found these tweets from ArsenalFixtureNews;

Nov 8:

"Due to the world cup, Arsenal are looking at alternatives to Asia for 2014/15 pre-season only. USA is currently being investigated."

Dec 8:

"We will spend only one week in USA for pre-season including one match in Washington. This will mean another two weeks elsewhere..."

YF billets!