How USC and Columbia landed a Manchester United vs. Liverpool friendly soccer match

It just feels out of place.

Los Angeles. Philadelphia. And Columbia, South Carolina.

Those are the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 76 television markets in the U.S.. Spot the one that isn’t like the others.

Come late summer, some of the biggest soccer clubs in the world are journeying to America for a handful of preseason exhibitions. It’s like the NBA holding preseason games in Japan — it’s a nice way to grow the game and build a global fan base.

So Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal — along with some other English Premier League squads — will play a few friendlies in the United States. Part of that includes the Rivals in Red Tour, which consists of three games.

Arsenal and Manchester United will play in Los Angeles on July 27.

Arsenal and Liverpool will kick off in Philadelphia on July 31.

To cap off the tour, Manchester United and Liverpool — the two most-successful teams in Premier League history — will square off in Columbia at Williams-Brice Stadium on Aug. 3.

Not New York. Not Atlanta. Not Miami.

But Columbia, South Carolina — population 137,000.

Two of the questions that arose from this announcement. Why? How?

“Where’s a place where we can capture hearts and minds and it can live up to the hype of what this rivalry delivers?” said Matt Kontos, the managing director of TEG Sport North America.

Let’s start with the why.

TEG Sport is a global live events company tasked as the promoters and producers of the Rivals in Red Tour. It was in charge of selecting the venues and the route the tour would take across America. Of course, the usual cities came up, the ones with billion-dollar stadiums and millions of folks within an hour drive.

“But, personally, thinking outside of the box, the power of what the SEC brings,” said Hugh Nicholson, a senior vice president of venues and commercial at TEG Sports. “The rabid fan base. The loyal alumni groups. And finding a place like Willy-B, which, the atmosphere speaks for itself.

“Internally, we decided it was something we really wanted to pursue,” he said.

Nicholson was fairly familiar with South Carolina. His brother-in-law and sister-in-law both attended USC. When the idea of bringing Premier League teams to Williams-Brice started growing, he called them up and asked if they thought it would be well-received. They couldn’t say yes fast enough.

And when tickets go on sale Tuesday at 9 a.m. (pre-sale Monday at 9 a.m.), it’s expected that the 78,000-seat Williams-Brice Stadium will be sold out.

Columbia brings value in its location, Nicholson thought. The city itself does not boast a population of millions, but it touches Charlotte and Atlanta and Charleston and so many other spots where folks would have no trouble driving from to see Manchester United and Liverpool.

“Taking it somewhere where people are going to be proud of it,” Nicholson said. “To show off what they have. To show off their community. To show off their building. And that’s what we look for.”

So on the day before Thanksgiving, Nicholson called Chance Miller, a senior deputy athletics director at South Carolina, asking if USC would be interested in hosting a friendly soccer match.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, MIller had many conversations within the South Carolina athletics office about bringing more than just seven football games a year to Williams-Brice. NFL stadiums, he mentioned, are always bringing people through their doors. Concerts. Soccer matches. Anything to bring in extra revenue.

A Premier League match was perfect.

“I’m in,” Miller told Nicholson. “But if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it big. Let’s bring the two biggest.”

The idea eventually grew to Manchester United vs. Liverpool at Williams-Brice Stadium. Miller was elated. TEG Sport thought it was an immaculate setting, an ideal blend of what Man U and Liverpool represent across the pond. Tradition. Pride. The sort of fan loyalty that others can’t quite comprehend.

But Manchester United and Liverpool still had to agree to play one of its very rare friendlies in a stadium and city that most of their rosters have probably never heard of.

“For the clubs, they want to know that this match is really going to resonate,” Nicholson said. “That the partner, the host, is really going to lean into it.”

Liverpool and Manchester United both brought their entire operations group to Columbia, and the South Carolina athletic department gave them a wide-ranging tour of anything and everything.

They were impressed with the Gamecocks’ training facilities, with Stone Stadium (the soccer venue) and the brand-new ops building attached that includes locker rooms, a training room, a film study room. They showed them the football buildings and the massive weight room. They showed them how close a track was to all of that.

They had them meet with head groundskeepers Clark Cox and Tim Flanagan, who gave them more than enough assurances that the natural grass inside Williams-Brice Stadium would be up to the quality they expected.

“I think Clark and Tim blew them away,” Miller said.

South Carolina was able to provide an immense amount of data to prove that the reach of USC extends far beyond the confines of Columbia. They showed how many Gamecock Club members live in Charlotte and Atlanta and Jacksonville. They had the data from its merchandise partner, Fanatics, to show how many people who bought South Carolina gear also bought Liverpool or Manchester United merchandise.

“I had both clubs and the promoter tell me that we were probably the best venue they had ever worked with in terms of being on top of it, being accommodating to them,” Miller said. “Working through issues and finding a way to make it work.”

The night before the Liverpool group was scheduled to fly out of Columbia, they asked Miller if he knew anywhere they could work out before they hopped on a long plane ride back to England. Could he shuttle them somewhere early to exercise?

He called South Carolina football strength and conditioning coach Luke Day and asked if he could open up the weight room a bit early and lead a workout. Day agreed. And the next morning at 6 a.m., Miller drove to a Columbia Hilton and picked up the folks from Liverpool.

Driving over to the building, Miller hit a pothole and blew out a tire. No worries. He kept driving on a busted tire and made sure they made it in time. If that wasn’t enough effort, when the folks from Liverpool walked into the weight room, Day had Liverpool anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” blaring through the speakers.

“I don’t think they got that at the professional stadiums,” Miller said. “Here, we’re trying to build relationships so that they want to come back here in the future.”

And that is the goal, right?

“We want to continue to bring incredible, meaningful live events to this market,” TEG Sport’s Kontos said. “The future will tell what that looks like.”