Why Premier League Clubs Travel Thousands of Miles for Pre-Season – Steven Falk

It’s that time of year again, when Premiership football clubs jet off on their pre-season tours to SE Asia, and North America. So prevalent and competitive is the rush to tour that some clubs will be playing the same opposition in the same country during the same week with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Sunderland and Spurs all heading east while Everton, Norwich and Stoke go west. 
So why do clubs travel thousands of miles to play a series of non-competitive matches just prior to the start of a gruelling season? The main reasons are:-

Help condition the playing squad for the coming season. Although it’s hard to find any medic who believes that a combination of long-haul flights, local cuisine, heat, humidity and an endless cycle of press conferences and commercial appearances is actually good preparation for the players.
Extend the club’s brand visibility and connect with local fans. While some clubs fill local stadia, tour matches often take place in front of empty seats. This is because of the high ticket prices levied by promoters keen to recover appearance fees paid to clubs.
Allow local sponsors the opportunity of activating against club assets. The tour is when a sponsor can associate their brand directly with a club in front of a local audience. Clubs leverage this as an opportunity to recruit new local sponsors or to upsell existing ones into regional or global deals.
Cultivate positive PR by engaging in local community projects. This is where clubs fall down miserably. With very few honourable exceptions, clubs talk up the idea of a tour legacy but few actually deliver against grandiose promises other than through well-publicised visits to the odd orphanage or charity event. In most cases, the concept of tour legacy rarely lasts beyond the moment the players depart for the next leg of their journey.
Generate incremental revenue. Here we have it. Clubs tour to gain revenue and with financial fair play regulations starting to bite, a tour generating up to £20m for five matches is something not even the wealthiest club can afford to spurn.
EPL clubs can benefit greatly from an effective pre-season tour. However, they have much more to do if they wish to avoid the perennial accusation that touring is simply an opportunity to take the money and run.

Steven Falk is founder of Star Sports Marketing a consultancy providing advice on sports sponsorship, brand and affinity marketing. He was previously Marketing Director at Manchester United. You can follow him on Twitter @steven_falk.