Manchester United, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth confirmed for U.S. pre-season tournament
Manchester United, Bournemouth, West Ham United and Everton will compete in the Premier League's Summer Series event in the United States at the end of July.
In February, The Athletic reported the four clubs would compete in the pre-season tournament that will be played across Atlanta, New Jersey and Chicago.
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NBC, the Premier League's exclusive U.S. broadcaster, confirmed the details on Sunday.
While three of the four participating clubs are in the bottom half of the Premier League standings, they are all 16 points or more clear of the relegation zone with 10 rounds of action remaining and are anticipated to maintain their top-flight status.
The Premier League had intended for another of its leading clubs, alongside United, to participate in the tournament. There had been hopes that either Liverpool or Arsenal could accept an invitation, but the former have instead opted to play their pre-season in Japan and Hong with the north London club expected to do similar.
The series will add to Manchester United's existing plans of a post-season tour in Malaysia and Hong Kong, which they anticipate will earn the club $10million (£7.9m) in revenue.
United will play West Ham in New Jersey on July 26, before playing Bournemouth in Chicago four days later and concluding their tour against Everton in Atalanta on August 3.
United may separately play a match at the Snapdragon stadium in San Diego, as they have done the previous two years when visiting the U.S. on tour. The club's front-of-shirt sponsor is Snapdragon, part of the Qualcomm group, but an additional match to two existing tour plans may be gruelling for the squad.
Bournemouth visited the U.S. last summer and are seeking to grow their market share and fanbase in the country under American owner Bill Foley, who also controls the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL. They have USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams in their squad, as well as young 18-year-old American prospect Matai Akinmboni.
Everton are also under American ownership since The Friedkin Group (TFG) completed its takeover of the club in December.
The Summer Series will commence following the conclusion of the FIFA Club World Cup — which is also being played across the U.S. and includes Chelsea and Manchester City — on July 13.
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The U.S., alongside Canada, will also host the Gold Cup tournament between June 14 and July 6.
While the Summer Series comes during a peak period of pre-season, there is unlikely to be too much competition in the U.S. due to the conclusion of the summer competitive tournaments and pre-season tours elsewhere in Asia, Australia and Europe.
This will be the second edition of the Summer Series, which commenced in 2023 but was cancelled in 2024 due to numerous complications around organising the event, which is the second pre-season competition affiliated to the Premier League to be hosted outside England after the Premier League Asia Trophy.
In 2023, Brentford, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Fulham and Brighton participated in the U.S tournament with each team playing three fixtures, with Chelsea finishing in first place with two wins and a draw.
That edition of the tournament lasted for nine days from July 22-30, with the Premier League saying over 260,000 fans attended the series.
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£2m per game and US is place to be - the commercial impact of pre-season
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