Bayern Munich’s women’s team on the search for fans and commercial development in the US

History is already in the making for FC Bayern Munich’s women’s team at the inaugural International Women’s Cup that will take place in the U.S. this summer — whether they win or lose.

On August 18 and 21, FC Bayern will take to the pitch at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Ky., joining Paris Saint-Germain FC as the two represent the international contingency that will spar with the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) Racing Louisville FC and the Chicago Red Stars in a four-game tournament.

For the German powerhouse, this event marks the first competitive tournament that its women’s team will participate in on U.S. soil. The team’s only previous appearance in America was back in 2015 for a winter training camp in Florida. For women’s football, it’s a means to help build the sport on a global scale.

Rudolf Vidal, President of the Americas of FC Bayern Munich, demonstrates an obvious enthusiasm for participating in the tournament.

“For us and the organizers, it is not just about showing up and playing games, it’s about being a part of the community, as well as creating opportunities and lasting memories for our fans,” he says.

What’s transpiring for women’s soccer globally

The International Women’s Cup (IWC), or The Women’s Cup as it is known, is billed as an annual event inviting the best teams from across the world to take part, with the intention to support the growth of women’s football. It was formed by a coalition of soccer and entertainment professionals.

The Women's Cup will be produced by the sports event production company Onside Entertainment, FXE Futbol, a soccer and entertainment company and Agrinzonis Sports, housed under Agrinzonis Management Group, a soccer-only agency. Other producers include ex-Juventus, Boca Juniors and FC Dallas players.

The tournament itself resonates with what’s transpiring worldwide for women’s soccer.

Since the 2019 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, it has steadily been on the rise. In early May, FIFA president Gianni Infantino told the French sports newspaper L'Equipe that a new Women’s Club World Cup will launch soon and is intended to “revolutionize women's football."

Adds Vidal: “Just last year we saw the NWSL break league ratings records by nearly 300 per cent — thanks to new broadcast deals with CBS Sports and Twitch.”

Explosion of girls' football

Among other major news and initiatives, Spain will professionalize its top league for women, La Liga Femenina, during the 2021-2022 season—33 years after it was formed.

In 2023, the FIFA Council's agreement to a proposal to expand the FIFA Women’s World Cup from 24 teams to 32, will go into effect.

While the momentum continues to build to strengthen women’s football, there is still much work to be done.

FIFA released a report in May of this year: “Increasing Global Competitiveness: An analysis of the talent development ecosystem.” The analysis points to an “explosion of girls’ football” and witnessing that “every Women’s World Cup is a jump ahead…But, it’s still true that the quality of the competitions and training sessions, as well as the number of the training sessions, are behind and it is absolutely important that we correct that.”

The report also went on to say that to develop the game for women, better access is necessary for all phases of player development as well as increased opportunities to play.
 
This has meaning to FC Bayern’s own initiative. Vidal says the Women’s Cup will be an extremely important part of the team’s pre-season training - just as any pre-season friendly is to get match-fit, or an international friendly that also contributes to professional play on the pitch.

Promoting the women’s team through content

But, the tour is as much an important marketing strategy to further increase the FC Bayern fanbase. During its time in Louisville, the club will offer numerous activations to support this goal. For example, FC Bayern will host an event bringing its players to meet their fans.

Vidal acknowledges that the tournament allows the club to introduce its women’s team to a new audience on their home soil, but it has devised other means to promote it. One example, he says, is enlisting players from across its various teams to support club-led campaigns, like “Reds Against Racism”, which launched in May 2020 and is designed to take a stand against “exclusion, abuse and intolerance”. Here, forward Lineth Beerensteyn talks about how people in her home country in the Netherlands deal with the issue.

The club is also creating more content featuring the most high-profile players from both the men’s and women's teams. The “Reds Against Racism” campaign exemplifies this. In March of this year, FC Bayern launched a roundtable on racism, culling experts in the field to have a frank discussion on the topic with some of the club's players. Midfielder Viviane Asseyi was among the participants, who commented on the environment of racism, what change needs to happen and a call for more discourse.

Speaking specifically to FC Bayern’s women’s team, Vidal says that an increasing fan base for women’s soccer will absolutely translate into more investment and revenues.

Research on each city and its nuances

FC Bayern is bullish on its support for the growth of the game, and in fact, had planned for the women’s team to participate more in the U.S. for some time. 

“Aligning team schedules for international tournaments and visits is a complicated task,” says Vidal, accounting for the delay. “Even with the best intentions of wanting to make regular visits we have to consider the sporting requirements and needs as well as our regular season fixtures.”

Our aim is to bring our teams to those fans whenever possible — no matter how far away from Munich they live.

Vidal underscores the importance of FC Bayern’s ambassadorial role with The Women’s Cup, though the relevance of his comments apply to the club at large. He explains that when FC Bayern travels to new cities and countries, the club ensures that they participate in community and cultural activities. While in Louisville for example, the team will visit the city’s landmarks like the Churchill Downs racetrack and The Muhammed Ali museum. Months in advance of their visit, FC Bayern researches each city and its nuances, while building relationships - and friendships that will hopefully remain in place long after the teams have gone. 

The importance of relationships

The importance of relationships is as critical. At close to one billion worldwide fans, FC Bayern relishes in those opportunities to bring live matches to its global supporters. 

“Not every fan will be able to travel to Munich to watch their favorite team play,” says Vidal. “Our aim is to bring our teams to those fans whenever possible — no matter how far away from Munich they live.”

FC Bayern’s role, as Vidal sees it, is to focus on sporting success and to showcase its players, increase awareness, amplify the club’s profile as well as its fan base. This tournament is a prime example of these efforts, he says.

The club’s American activities keep to a non-stop pace. FC Bayern was the first among its European counterparts to open an international office, which it did in 2014 in New York City, and now services all of the Americas. The office focuses its efforts on fan events, player development programs and partnership activation.

Institutional partnerships

“Our goal has always been to increase our fan base, support the growth of soccer and form mutually beneficial partnerships,” Vidal emphasizes.
 
Over the last seven years, its business in the region has reaped the rewards of FC Bayern’s work ethic. Vidal points to its fan base, highlighting the growth of its official fan clubs, increasing from eight to over 150 in North America alone.

By participating in The Women’s Cup, we hope to support the growth of women’s soccer in the U.S. - and Europe.

It has also formed critical partnerships such as media alliances with ESPN, an American multinational basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., (its co-parent companies are The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications) and TUDN, a sports programming division of Univision, a Spanish language broadcast television network owned by Univision Communications. Then there are the institutional partnerships with some of the American Ivy League schools, such as Columbia University. It also created an elite player development program with Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas.
 
Having a permanent presence in the Americas has also led to an increase in commercial revenues through new partnerships and licensing agreements across the region with such organizations as Fanatics and Stamina Sports Licensing.

Long-held passion for the game

The intersect of sports and business is something Vidal is well-accustomed to. Prior to being appointed to his current position, Vidal served as Vice President of Business Development and Monetization for Deutsche Telecom AG, stabilizing and extending the digital business with significant sales growth and integration of all sports initiatives across the organization.

But, it’s Vidal’s long-held passion for the game that serves as the impetus for his career path and leadership goals. Vidal served as goalkeeper within the first and second division of the Bundesliga until his mid-twenties. He later earned a law degree from Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University. Yet, the call of football continued to captivate Vidal.

“I always knew I wanted to stay within the sports industry so I went on to work for Puma for five years and oversaw the company’s 2006 World Cup campaign — the largest and most successful World Cup for Puma, in terms of brand awareness and revenue growth,” he says.

Vidal highlights some of the successes FC Bayern has experienced in the U.S. “In the last seven years we have had our men’s team play four summer tours in the U.S., our legends team play in Brazil, our basketball team play in a G-league tournament in Uruguay — and this summer we are pleased to bring our women’s team to the U.S. to play for the first time.

Vidal sums it up succinctly, but no less with a punch: “By participating in The Women’s Cup, we hope to support the growth of women’s soccer in the U.S. - and Europe.”

And as women’s football continues to rise, those goals seem closely within reach.