City become the most watched PL team in the US

Yeah more and more people here recognize the badge when I am out and about in my various incarnations of City gear. Of course I always wear City gear when going to play old man footy here. My team has a lot of united supporters too so I relish it. We also have an Inter fan on the team from Italy, who doesn't like it at all when I wear the stuff. Wonder why that is...?;)

Now before the explosion of Premier League coverage here (or the EPL as they call it here...), my lovely American wife was labouring under the misapprehension that I supported a team from Manchester and the only one that she heard of was the shower from Trafford. Well she thought that she would get me a great Christmas gift one year. She traveled to the the North End in Boston, a well known Italian enclave who had the only soccer shop in the area at the time and brought me home a full (wanker) united kit and tracksuit to boot. I looked in the bag, and quietly gave it back to her. I said: "Thanks for the thought honey, but I will never ever wear that." And I explained - once again - that there was another team in the Manchester area; in fact the one that I support actually comes from the city of Manchester. She still really didn't get it. "b-but it's Manchester...etc."

And then the coverage just skyrocketed at the exact moment of City's ascension. Incredible timing. Now she gets it. So much so that she buys me City gear now. And posted a picture of me and my son right at the moment of the final whistle of the CL final.

Anyway, yes, we are big here now. Especially with the younger ones. Long may it continue.
 
Football is cyclical.

Liverpool won everything in the 80s, and their fanbase grew huge. United won everything in the 90s and early 00s, and their fanbase grew huge. City has won everything for the past 7 years, and our fanbase is growing similarly.

If we fall off a cliff edge tomorrow, we'll lose the momentum, but we'll still have a much larger fanbase than previously because of all those fans we've won in the last decade. If Pep stays for another 10 years I think we could grow to having the third largest (global) following (for English teams) behind the rags and the dippers.
 
KingGeorge said:
I think 2012 was when every Premier League game starting being televised on US television.

The club timed its ascension brilliantly. The team improved at an ideal time to capture market share.

A lot of United's glory years weren't really televised in the United States. The beauty for us is we don't have to put up with the red shirt dynamic domestic UK fans have to deal with. NBC doesn't play the game of making negative commentary about City to capture red shirt audiences.
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I thought it was a little later but no matter. During Pearce there were a few times I was biting my nails worrying that if City got relegated I'd never see them. As it was, old Fox Soccer Channel got to maybe 10-12 City matches a season.

I concur we are EXTREMELY lucky to have the NBC crew -- Lowe, Earle, Mustow, Howard, Higginbotham, etc. -- who are so objective and often so thoughtful. They are very much like the bulk of national American sport colo(u)r commentators who even if having played for teams in the past are decidedly neutral in their approach to commentary, in-game and before/after/in-between-game.
 
It's been apparent for some time that it's only the UK media who are beholden to the Red Top lemmings.
 
jaiguruKun said:
It's been apparent for some time that it's only the UK media who are beholden to the Red Top lemmings.
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And I believe that's because those in the roles of journalists/editors had to devote their brainpower and -- more importantly -- connection-making to the red clubs to stay competitive with each other in the older days. Now, having had the tables turned by blue clubs, they don't have the knowledge base nor the relationships at them that allow them to add value.
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
I thought it was a little later but no matter. During Pearce there were a few times I was biting my nails worrying that if City got relegated I'd never see them. As it was, old Fox Soccer Channel got to maybe 10-12 City matches a season.

I concur we are EXTREMELY lucky to have the NBC crew -- Lowe, Earle, Mustow, Howard, Higginbotham, etc. -- who are so objective and often so thoughtful. They are very much like the bulk of national American sport colo(u)r commentators who even if having played for teams in the past are decidedly neutral in their approach to commentary, in-game and before/after/in-between-game.
Click to expand...
Speaking of Becky Lowe; that girl has a cult following here, especially amongst the - what I would call - newer footy fans. I was at one of the NBC fan fests a few years back here in Boston and everywhere she went, guys were falling over themselves to catch her eye. I didn't realize that she was so tiny. But boy does she have fans.

I had a great chat with Kyle Martino that day; big City fan - well of the football City play anyway - who is no longer with NBC. Lovely guy. Plus got a selfie with the legendary Shawn Wright-Phillips. My son grew up watching him on the old Fox Sports Network when we were on so was gobsmacked to meet him.
 
Sky blue is a beautiful colour, blood red, is just that, gruesome. Its a cheap colour.
 
BongoBlue said:
Speaking of Becky Lowe; that girl has a cult following here, especially amongst the - what I would call - newer footy fans. I was at one of the NBC fan fests a few years back here in Boston and everywhere she went, guys were falling over themselves to catch her eye. I didn't realize that she was so tiny. But boy does she have fans.

I had a great chat with Kyle Martino that day; big City fan - well of the football City play anyway - who is no longer with NBC. Lovely guy. Plus got a selfie with the legendary Shawn Wright-Phillips. My son grew up watching him on the old Fox Sports Network when we were on so was gobsmacked to meet him.
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I thought Kyle was also a very good -- and objective -- commentator. SWP -- that's great. Loved him. Big fan of old-school wingers cuz that's what I was as a youngster. Petrov still one of my favo(u)rite City players.
 
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