The occasion of Manchester United playing Arsenal is as suitable a yardstick as any to measure soccer’s burgeoning globalization: Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune says the game — which he notes was generously placed at Saturday’s early time slot to correspond with late evening primetime viewing in Asia — is reported to have been watched by an estimated one billion people across the globe.
One billion viewers, mind you, either meets or exceeds the total number of viewers for the 2006 World Cup final, depending on whose research you believe. Last year The New York Times cited Initiative Futures Worldwide’s tally of 300 million for the 2006 final, while Sponsorship Intelligence, an agency hired by FIFA’s own marketer, said that at least one billion viewers saw the match between Italy and France, whose start-time wasn’t nearly as generous for the hundreds of millions of viewers in Asia.
Another measure of the rivalry’s global impact is the exorbitant sums scalpers and online ticket resellers charged for the privilege of seeing the match live. Hughes says a Seattle-based firm, for example, sought $2,500 for tickets in the side stands and $2,000 for views from behind the goal — minus taxes and shipping. Scalpers in London, meanwhile, advertised seats for $1,000. “In that way, the faithful fan gets half his annual outlay paid by a stranger, puts the beer on ice to sit and watches in his own living room,” said Hughes.