Meat Prey Glove a Trip with the Eagle Hunters of Mongolia Check It Out
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Saturday 21 March / Sunday 22 March 2015 Check it out Meat prey glove Tony Hall Why gingham is this A trip with the eagle The BBC’s chief on season’s sultriest look hunters of Mongolia getting a grip on gaffes STYLE PAGE 6 TRAVEL PAGE 9 LUNCH WITH THE FT PAGE 3 Follow us on Twitter @FTLifeArts New York, new football club Fans, face painting, beer and bleachers: how — and why — Manchester City’s owners are creating a new club from scratch. By Matthew Garrahan hink of the football team you support. If you don’t have one, try to imagine those you hear about on television or see in newspa- Tpers. Liverpool, perhaps, or Barcelona, orACMilan,orChelsea. Now try to imagine that the club didn’t exist and had to be built from scratch, its fan base, culture and tradi- tions assembled in months, rather than evolving naturally over the course of a century like most top-tier clubs in foot- ball-mad countries such as England, Spain,GermanyorItaly. This is the challenge facing City Foot- ball Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi- — controlled company that owns Manchester City and which this month From top: Heineken, giant pretzels and “bottom- “Lampard coming was a draw for me,” and Lampard — eventually — is great,” launched New York City FC, a new NYCFC fans less popcorn buckets”,which contained said Tom. Rather more surprisingly,his said Alex Luetkemeyer, who had just professional club and the latest “expan- celebrate amind-boggling2,473calories. son revealed that he was a fan of a less bought two replica shirts at the club sion franchise” to compete in Major victory in the Several hundred New England fans famous west London side, Brentford, store. “As a kid I would never have LeagueSoccer. team’s first had made the trek south from Boston to saying he chose the club after watching wanted to play in MLS. It was just kick CFGhopesitcanbringtheexpertiseit home game; New York and were in full voice before them play an FA Cup tie on television. andrunbefore,buttheyhavebroughtin has learnt from backing a Premier a cop captures kick-off, although the main chant NYCFC gives the Johnsruds a local toptalent.” League-winning team in England to the the action on directed at the New York fans (“A-Rod option. “It’s great that this city finally Previous attempts to launch football US, and to a sport that continues to lag camera; sucks!”) acknowledged the fierce base- hasitsownteam,”Tomsaid. in the US have been well-documented. domestic rivals such as baseball and supporters get ball rivalry that exists between the two Others in the stadium shared this In the mid-1970s, the North American basketball. It has pledged to build its behind their cities rather than the nascent football view. “To have a team here in Yankee own stadium for NYCFC but, for now, side. To see one. Such was the demand for tickets Stadium and players like [David] Villa Continuedonpage2 the team is in temporary digs at Yankee more photos that Yankee Stadium officials opened Stadium(theNewYorkYankeesown20 from the game the 50,000-capacity stadium’s upper percentofthenewfranchise). by Martine tier and, as kick-off neared, the ground Last Sunday,in a kit identical to Man- Fougeron, visit wasprettymuchfull. chester City’s sky blue, New York City ft.com/nycfc After an appearance by New York played their “historic” first home game. mayor Bill de Blasio, roundly booed by The ballpark of baseball’s most illustri- the crowd, the giant screen over the ous team — previously graced by the pitch showed a short film narrated by likes of the great Derek Jeter and Alex MichaelRapaport,alocalactor.InaNew “A-Rod” Rodriguez — was temporarily York accent so thick you could spread it converted for football. Grass was laid on a bagel, he explained that the new over the pitcher’s mound and dirt por- clubwasacontinuationofafootballtra- tions of the infield, goalposts were dition that existed long before the con- erectedandtouchlineswerepainted. struction of landmarks such as the More than 40,000 tickets were sold Empire State Building. When immi- forthematchagainstNewEnglandRev- grantscametoNewYork,Rapaportsaid, olution — at least 15,000 belonged to they brought their love of football with new season-ticket holders — and, in the them, starting amateur clubs with hours leading up to the 5pm kick-off, names such as St Mary’s Celtic, the fans began to assemble on Babe Ruth Brooklyn Italians and the New York Plaza, packing the nearby club store to Ukrainians,all“enthusiasticrepresenta- buy NYCFC replica shirts and scarves tionsofethnicityandneighbourhoods”. and having their faces painted in club The launch of a new professional coloursforfree.Thereweredeeplinesat team backed by Abu Dhabi oil money is concession stands selling $15 cans of of a different order of magnitude. For CFG, which also owns Melbourne City FC in Australia, NYCFC is, in part, a way Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski on why the MLS needs more inequality toexpandtheManchesterCitybrandby having teams in other countries that MLS isn’t major at all. If it plans to better players. That would entail Randy Lerner, who have been share characteristics with the English stay as it is, it ought to rename itself making losses, not profits. This is buying English clubs, could instead club. Yet the new team will still have to Minor League Soccer. the norm in global soccer — Abu start bringing the world’s biggest forge emotional connections with its At root, the problem is that most Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour will stars to the world’s biggest economy. city and spark enthusiasm for football owners of MLS franchises want to probably never make a profit on the Americans worry that (a) the among New Yorkers, who are hardly make money – something US sports $1bn he has sunk into Manchester league would fold due to losses and lacking for other sports to watch. The leagues are good at, largely because City since buying the club in 2008. (b) fans would lose interest in an questionis,willitsucceed? they monopolise their sports. Gridiron In the competitive market, owners unbalanced competition. Both are football’s NFL and the North are prepared to absorb losses as unwarranted. True, the old North Based on the enthusiastic response American baseball, basketball and they chase glory. American Soccer League folded in from the people I spoke to before, dur- ice-hockey major leagues have no MLS limits spending through a the 1980s but chiefly because it ing and after the game, NYCFC has a credible competitors. They can hire centralised structure that insists couldn’t get a national broadcast pretty good shot. Some were struck by the world’s best players. Fans can’t players’ contracts are signed with contract in an era when cable the oddity of a football match being find stronger leagues elsewhere. the league, not the clubs. It gives wasn’t yet lucrative. Today cable played at the home of the Yankees. “It’s Owners can, therefore, collude to keep clubs some freedom to spend can fund a league. As for competitive a little weird to see a soccer pitch in a costs down. Forbes estimates the NFL through the “designated player balance, there is now lots of baseballstadium.Itlookscrooked,”said made operating profits of 18 per cent rule”, which has funded the academic research on how much TomJohnsrudfromConnecticut,whose on its $9.5bn revenues for 2014. acquisition of the likes of Frank fans care about it. The answer: not teenage son, Nils, was wearing blue face By contrast, soccer’s biggest Lampard and Steven Gerrard this very much, not even in the US. paintandaspikywiginthesamecolour. national leagues compete globally season. But ageing stars aren’t The US can have a truly major Both were already football fans: Tom for players and viewers. In the US, enough. MLS needs something very soccer league but only if it lets likes English Premier League team Mexican, English and Spanish American: full-blooded competition. owners compete against each other. Chelsea, whose former star Frank Lam- leagues — in that order — are If it drops the salary cap and lets pard is en route to New York this sum- probably more popular than MLS. clubs spend freely, then rich Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski merafteraloanstintatManchesterCity MLS needs to spend more to sign Americans such as John Henry or are co-authors of ‘Soccernomics’ controversially delayed his arrival in time for the start of the new season. MARCH 21 2015 Section:Weekend Time: 19/3/2015 - 19:06 User: stokest Page Name: WKD1, Part,Page,Edition: WKD, 1, 1.