The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Classic, this soccer match would pay tremendous dividends for the athletic department and the city of Ann Arbor. "To me it wasn't a no-brainer because I'm not a soccer guy," Brandon said. "We have two great soccer programs we're very proud of and we get good participa- tion from the student body and the community, but we had never really con- templated how many people we could put in The Big House for a soccer game. "We had to do a lot of research. I learned a lot about these two organizations and this tournament. These brands, if you're not familiar, go online and look at the magnitude of these two brands, these two businesses. It's really quite remarkable. "You could argue they are two of the largest brands in sports in the world when you consider the amount of revenue they generate and their global recognition. And it's the first time they've matched up in the United States." The Champions Cup pits eight of Europe's most famous clubs against each other in a round-robin format that culminates with a championship game Aug. 4 in Miami. Limited tickets are available for the other Champions Cup matches, including Manchester United's group-play contests in Denver (versus AS Roma July 26) and Washington, D.C. (versus Inter Milan July 29) and Real Madrid's matches in Phoenix (versus Inter Milan July 26) and Dallas (versus AS Roma July 29). Brandon said that an economic study of a few years ago estimated that a home football game created $14 million in revenue for the surrounding area, and those numbers will likely rise due to inflation alone, but also because a great number of soccer fans will likely be making the trip from outside driving distance. The operations center of RelEvent Sports will handle most of the logistics — Michigan will staff and run concessions and parking at The Big House for an up- front fee — including the installation of natural grass. The process needs only 48 hours to provide a playing surface worthy of the two teams participating. "The first iteration was bringing in and building a false field that would actu- ally go into the first six or seven rows of the bleachers," Brandon said. "They were going to float a field and cover it with regular turf. That scared the hell out of me because that sounded like a major undertaking that would have huge setup and takedown, and potentially damage the field. "Where we migrated to is there is a protective covering put over our FieldTurf, and then they bring in trays of sod that are laid like carpeting all linked to- gether. It's natural sod and these guys play on this all the time. It's high quality and when the competition is over, you haul it out. "And I just heard we become the proud owner of this sod. I'm sure there is someplace on the athletic campus … the soccer coaches will probably fight over it."