Bayern Munich Join Audi Summer Tour and International Champions Cup
Legendary German club Bayern Munich announce they will tour the U.S. this summer along with other notable European clubs. FC Bayern will participate for the first time in the International Champions Cup along with FC Barcelona, Leicester City and Paris Saint-Germain that will be hosted in three major cities during an eventful soccer summer in the United States.
Soccer News: FC Bayern Munich, one of the biggest and most valuable clubs in world soccer, today announced the club will tour the US with the “Audi Summer Tour 2016” and participate in the “International Champions Cup” (ICC) from July 25 through August 4, in preparation for the upcoming season. This will be the first time FC Bayern will participate in the ICC, which will feature three high-profile games in three major US cities.
The first of the three matches will take place on July 27 at Soldier Field in Chicago against famed Italian side AC Milan as part of the Audi Football Summit Chicago. The second game will see FC Bayern visit the stadium of NFL Super Bowl finalists Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina on July 30 to play their 2010 Champions League final opponents Inter Milan. The tour culminates in New York on August 3 at MetLife stadium in the Audi Football Summit New York in the high-profile matchup against historic European rivals Real Madrid.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, FC Bayern Munich CEO, is especially looking forward to reuniting with fans in the US, “Since we opened our New York office, we have seen first-hand how much passion there is for soccer in America and how quickly the sport is growing. That is why I am extremely excited to come back with the team in July.”
Executive Board Member of Internationalization and Strategy of FC Bayern Munich, Joerg Wacker, said: “The US is an important market within our international strategy. The Audi Summer Tour has developed in to an important stepping stone for our activities and supports our goal to further expand the FC Bayern Munich brand globally.”
FC Bayern garnered significant attention in 2014 for its US tour and office opening. Over the last two years, the club has made significant progress towards its goal of growing the brand’s presence and reach in the US market. Some of the key achievements include: building the largest network of official US fan clubs of any European soccer club – 92 to date; partnerships to reach thousands of young soccer fans via Global Premier Soccer (GPS), one of the largest youth soccer clubs in the US; media partnerships with Univision, Yahoo, and MSN; a partnership with the prestigious Columbia University; as well as launching a US-specific website, e-commerce site, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Fickies
