Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt plans to open its regional office in New York City in January 2020, SportBusiness has been told. The move is designed to coincide with Frankfurt’s participation in the Florida Cup mid-season friendly competition.
Frankfurt will work out of the Manhattan office of American-based jobs listings search engine Indeed following a partnership extension with the company through 2023.
Frankfurt, which launched a Chinese subsidiary in Beijing earlier this year, will join the likes of FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, and Ajax in establishing a regional base in the United States.
Initially, Frankfurt will not have any full-time staff at the New York office, but will instead bring over full-time staff who are based in Germany to work from the hub throughout the year.
The plan during the first year of the office’s opening will be to establish youth academies in the United States and work towards developing commercial partnerships with US companies. Frankfurt also plans to bring the first team to the US every year until 2026 when the US, Canada and Mexico host the World Cup.
“We will really expand our expand our activities in the US when we open the [New York] office,” Frankfurt board member Axel Hellmann told SportBusiness in June.
Meanwhile, Frankfurt has also entered into an agreement with the city council to enable the club to operate Commerzbank-Arena, as well as the surrounding practice area, on a year-round basis.
The deal, which lasts from 2020 until 2035, means that Frankfurt can benefit financially from naming rights, concerts, and other third-party events at the venue, which will significantly boost club revenues. A five-year naming-rights deal with Commerzbank, worth €4m ($4.5m) annually, ends in 2020.
There are also plans to expand the stadium to a 60,000-seat capacity, up from 51,500, in preparation of the 2024 European Championship, which is being hosted by Germany. Further upgrades include installing the necessary technology to provide fans with free WiFi on match days and introducing mobile payments for merchandise and concessions.
