Premier League to stage 20 opening weekend watch parties in the U.S. and Canada
The Premier League will stage opening-weekend watch parties across North America for all 20 top-flight clubs.
The events take place across 16 cities in the United States, plus Toronto in Canada, to coincide with the tour leg of singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, a minority shareholder in Ipswich Town.
The initiative, branded Coast to Coast, will include free watch parties and fan events around all 10 fixtures from August 21 to 24.
Premier League champions Arsenal, owned by Denver-based Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, will host its event at McGregor Square in Denver.
Liverpool will hold its event outside Fenway Park in Boston, home of the Boston Red Sox, which is also owned by the club’s parent company Fenway Sports Group, while Leeds United will be represented in San Francisco, where 49ers Enterprises is based.
Chelsea will host an event in Dallas, Manchester United and Crystal Palace will both be represented in New York, while Newcastle United are across the Hudson River in Newark, New Jersey.
Manchester City’s event will take place in Washington, D.C. as the Enzo Maresca era gets underway against Bournemouth, who are in Tampa.
Brighton and Hove Albion are also in Florida, with their event in Kissimmee, while opening day opponents Aston Villa are in Chicago, alongside Nottingham Forest.
Sheeran is scheduled to perform his Loop tour at the Rogers Centre on August 20, 21 and 22, with the matchday gathering taking place on the final date as his local club prepare for their return to the Premier League following last season’s promotion.
(Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
Fellow newly-promoted side Coventry City will celebrate their return to the Premier League after 25 years in Detroit, while Hull City, who went up via the playoffs, have an event in Cincinnati.
Both Brentford and Fulham’s events will take place in Atlanta, Everton’s takes place in Houston, Tottenham Hotspur are in Austin and Sunderland are in Nashville.
The initiative follows 12 editions of the Premier League Mornings Live fan festivals staged with U.S. broadcast partner NBC which piloted in November 2017 and officially started in September 2018.
It comes off the back of a record-breaking men’s World Cup for viewing figures in the United States, which co-hosted the tournament alongside Canada and Mexico.
The U.S men’s national team’s opening World Cup match against Paraguay attracted a combined television audience of 27.5million, the largest recorded for a football match in the country, and set the tone for broadcast records to continue to be broken across the tournament.
The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina attracted 38.9million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched English-language football telecast in U.S. history. At its peak, the final on Fox drew nearly 51.7million viewers.
Telemundo also delivered record ratings for the final, with 23.9million viewers, making the game the most-watched Spanish-language soccer telecast in U.S. history by total audience, bettering the previous record set by the Mexico-England game on July 5.