Was the United States really a football desert?
The answer depended entirely on what you measured.
In terms of cultural influence, association football still trailed American football, baseball and basketball by a considerable distance. The NFL in particular occupied a position in American sporting life that football could not come close to matching.
Participation told a very different story.
A long-term market study commissioned by New Manchester United's commercial department estimated that more than twenty million Americans played football with some degree of regularity, and roughly a third of them were under eighteen.
At youth level, the numbers were even more striking.
Football had become one of the most widely played organised sports among American children. Millions took part through schools, local leagues and community programmes, giving the United States a player base far larger than its professional game's public profile suggested.
Major League Soccer was growing too.
Average attendance across the league was already above fifteen thousand per match, a figure that compared favourably with many established European competitions.
Television numbers were improving as well.
The Champions League final had attracted an American audience that would once have seemed impossible for a European club match. With the 2006 World Cup approaching, broadcasters expected interest in football to continue rising.
That was why Ethan had never accepted the simplistic description of America as a football desert.
Football was not the country's dominant sport.
That did not mean there was no market.
The more important difference was spending power.
American supporters were commercially valuable because the country's consumer market was enormous.
Early projections for the 2006 World Cup suggested that tens of thousands of Americans would travel to Germany and purchase a substantial number of tickets.
European clubs had noticed.
Real Madrid noticed.
Manchester United noticed.
AC Milan noticed.
So did New Manchester United.
The problem was that many European clubs had treated American tours as little more than short-term commercial exercises.
Fly in.
Play two or three friendlies.
Hold a sponsor event.
Sell shirts.
Leave.
Manchester United had followed that model more than once.
The financial return could be respectable, but it did little to create a lasting local connection.
Ethan wanted something different.
New Manchester United's American strategy had been in development for almost two years.
The tour itself was only the visible part.
The club's commercial department wanted permanent relationships with American football organisations, especially in youth development.
Several Major League Soccer clubs had already expressed interest.
The strongest discussions were with LA Galaxy.
That was one reason Mourinho's squad had chosen Los Angeles for the main portion of pre-season.
The coaching staff wanted warm weather, good facilities and suitable opposition.
The commercial department wanted to examine the Galaxy's infrastructure and organisation at close range.
If the partnership developed as hoped, New Manchester United intended to establish five football academies in major American cities over the following five years.
The plan was not to import hundreds of British coaches and pretend English football had all the answers.
Local coaches would be trained.
School and community talent would be identified.
New Manchester United would provide technical guidance, development structures and access to the methods being used at Newton Heath.
The purpose was long-term.
The club also abandoned the idea of entering the market alone.
AC Milan and Real Madrid had been invited to participate in the summer programme.
That immediately changed the scale of the event.
All three clubs had reached the Champions League semi-finals the previous season.
New Manchester United had won the competition.
Milan had reached the final.
Real Madrid remained arguably the most recognisable football club on the planet.
Putting all three in the same American programme created an event that local promoters could sell as elite European football rather than a collection of disconnected friendlies.
The response had exceeded expectations.
Ticket sales for the Audi-sponsored tournament were extremely strong, with projected crowds of more than fifty thousand for the biggest fixtures.
Prices ranged from roughly thirty-five to eighty-five dollars.
Once broadcasting rights, sponsorship revenue and matchday income were included, commercial projections suggested that the wider event could generate tens of millions of dollars.
Even the warm-up match against LA Galaxy was selling quickly.
By the time New Manchester United left England, around fifteen thousand tickets had already been purchased.
The local organisers believed the final attendance could challenge the Galaxy's existing records.
When the club's charter flight landed at Los Angeles International Airport, the players received their first indication that the commercial department's research had not been exaggerating.
The arrival information had been published through the club's official website, email lists, online fan communities and other digital channels.
Supporters knew exactly when the squad was coming.
More than two thousand people were waiting.
The noise rose the moment the players appeared in the arrivals area.
Curtis stopped for a second and looked around.
Scarves.
Red shirts.
Handmade signs.
Beckham shirts everywhere.
Kaká shirts too.
Ronaldo's number appeared almost as often.
A surprising number of supporters were wearing Messi shirts despite the Argentine's age.
Curtis glanced towards Beckham.
"I thought nobody over here cared about football."
Beckham laughed.
"Tell them that."
The club's internal estimates suggested that New Manchester United already had several million followers across the United States, ranging from committed supporters to more casual fans who followed the club through individual players.
The team had not needed to visit America every year for that audience to grow.
Beckham alone had enormous name recognition.
Mourinho was becoming a celebrity in his own right.
Kaká appealed strongly to younger supporters and families.
Ronaldo attracted attention through both his football and his image.
Messi's rise had already created fascination among serious football fans.
Then there was the club itself.
The Red Rebels identity travelled well.
Young.
Successful.
Aggressive.
Different.
Supporters who had no connection to Manchester could still attach themselves to the story.
Airport officials had anticipated a crowd and arranged additional security.
New Manchester United's staff also made an effort not to rush the players through immediately.
The squad was moved towards a larger open area where supporters could take photographs and receive autographs in a more controlled environment.
The reaction was extraordinary.
Children pushed shirts towards the barriers.
Parents held cameras above their heads.
Teenagers shouted players' names.
Some supporters had travelled for hours simply to spend a few seconds near the squad.
The players had been briefed before landing.
Unless security became a concern, they were encouraged to give the crowd time.
Beckham barely made it ten metres without being stopped.
A young woman asked for a photograph.
He smiled, put an arm around her shoulders and leaned towards the camera.
A few seconds later she became so overwhelmed that nearby staff had to help her sit down.
Curtis stared.
Ronaldo burst out laughing.
Beckham looked embarrassed.
"Don't start."
That only encouraged them.
For all the jokes, the incident demonstrated something every commercial executive in football already understood.
Beckham's popularity went far beyond sport.
The media noticed too.
American television crews and newspaper reporters filled one side of the arrivals area.
Several had covered European teams visiting the United States before.
Few could remember a reception of this scale.
What stood out most was the age of the crowd.
New Manchester United's strongest American following was among younger supporters.
That was hardly accidental.
The club had spent years cultivating an image built around energy, youth and modern culture.
Beckham appealed across generations.
Kaká had a clean-cut image and extraordinary footballing reputation.
Ronaldo had style and charisma.
Messi was becoming the teenage prodigy everyone wanted to see.
Together, they gave the club access to audiences far beyond traditional football supporters.
It took nearly an hour for the squad to leave the airport.
When the players finally boarded the team bus, conversation immediately returned to the reception.
Even footballers accustomed to Old Trafford, the Bernabéu, Camp Nou and packed Champions League nights had been surprised.
Beckham had clearly attracted the biggest crowd.
Kaká was not far behind.
Ronaldo had his own noisy following.
Messi's name had been shouted constantly.
Even squad players who had expected relative anonymity found supporters asking for photographs.
The mood on the bus was excellent.
Then they reached the hotel.
Another crowd was waiting.
Roughly three hundred supporters had gathered outside.
Security had already created a controlled entrance, but the bus had barely stopped before the noise began again.
Curtis looked through the window.
"So much for the football desert."
While Mourinho's players were discovering just how much support they had in Los Angeles, Ethan was already inside the hotel discussing the next stage of the club's American plans.
His visitor represented one of the most influential sports and entertainment businesses in the country.
Anschutz Entertainment Group.
AEG's interests stretched across professional sport, arena management, concerts, entertainment and property.
The company had extensive involvement in Major League Soccer, including LA Galaxy and the MetroStars, and maintained connections throughout the American sports industry.
New Manchester United had worked with AEG before.
The relationship extended into the club's Goal! film project, which brought together several major entertainment partners.
The film had become an important part of New Manchester United's American marketing strategy.
Earlier in the year, the producers had even purchased advertising time during the Super Bowl.
That was not cheap.
A thirty-second Super Bowl commercial could cost millions of dollars, and Hollywood studios competed aggressively for the available slots.
The year's advertising had included some of the largest films on the release calendar.
For Goal! to appear among them demonstrated how seriously the project was being promoted.
The production team created a special thirty-second trailer built around its strongest football and dramatic sequences.
The commercial cost roughly $3 million.
The reaction justified the expense.
Although the film had yet to reach cinemas, awareness among American sports audiences had risen sharply.
Test marketing suggested that it had become one of the year's most anticipated sports films.
A major North American release was planned, supported by a premiere and a promotional campaign involving several New Manchester United players.
AEG was also closely involved in organising the summer football programme.
So far, Ethan had few complaints.
Ticketing had been handled well.
Venue negotiations were strong.
Media coverage had exceeded projections.
Corporate sponsorship had been secured.
The logistics were professional.
When AEG indicated that it wanted a deeper relationship with New Manchester United, Mark Davey's department took the proposal seriously.
Preliminary discussions followed.
Then Ethan arrived in the United States a day ahead of Mourinho's squad to meet AEG president Tim Leiweke personally.
Leiweke had spent years operating at the intersection of sport, entertainment and large-scale venue business.
He was experienced, commercially aggressive and direct.
Ethan generally preferred that type of negotiator.
There was little value in spending half a meeting pretending neither side understood what the other wanted.
Mark Davey and Gardner joined Ethan.
Leiweke brought several senior AEG executives of his own.
They met in a private conference room inside the team hotel.
The opening conversation was brief.
Leiweke soon moved to the point.
"We understand you're serious about establishing permanent football academies in the United States."
"We are," Ethan replied.
"So are we."
Leiweke leaned forward.
"We believe football here is going to grow significantly over the next decade."
He did not try to sell Ethan some romantic vision of America suddenly replacing the NFL with association football.
The opportunity was more realistic than that.
The participation base already existed.
Youth football already existed.
Major League Soccer had survived its most dangerous early years.
The World Cup had created a generation familiar with the sport.
European football was becoming easier to watch.
The missing pieces were professional infrastructure, elite development and stronger connections between American youth football and the highest levels of the international game.
AEG could provide part of that.
Leiweke laid it out simply.
"We have local relationships."
"We understand the cities."
"We have venues, commercial channels and capital."
"We also have professional clubs."
He looked towards Ethan.
"What we don't have is what you have."
"A proven development system."
"European credibility."
"Coaching expertise."
"And a name young players already recognise."
That was the heart of the proposal.
AEG did not need New Manchester United to teach it how to operate a stadium in Los Angeles.
New Manchester United did not need AEG to explain football.
Each side possessed something the other lacked.
"If we combine those strengths," Leiweke said, "we should be able to establish ourselves early in a market that is going to become much more valuable."
Ethan said nothing immediately.
That was almost exactly how his own commercial department had framed the opportunity.
The original plan called for five New Manchester United-affiliated academies in five major American cities over five years.
That required land.
Facilities.
Local administration.
Legal expertise.
School relationships.
Community connections.
Coaches.
Scouting networks.
Considerable capital.
New Manchester United could finance the project alone.
That did not mean doing so would be sensible.
A strong American partner could reduce risk and accelerate expansion.
AEG was one candidate.
There were others.
What separated Leiweke's company from most of them was that AEG already understood both sport and entertainment.
It could offer more than money.
Ethan looked across the table.
The first stage of New Manchester United's American expansion had been about being noticed.
The next would be about becoming established.
And that required choosing the right people to build with.
(To be continued.)