Man City "has yet to supply its Melbourne affiliate with a big-name player, and no-one has yet made the journey in the other direction," according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. But "the synergies between the two clubs are developing quickly off-field." Melbourne "has just hired a director of marketing, Nick Becker, formerly based with the City Football Group in Manchester." And the A-League side dispatched a number of its medical and support staff to the U.K. "for a series of briefing sessions on how the Premiership giant does things." On the commercial front, the traffic may mostly be from Manchester to Melbourne, with City's main sponsor, Etihad, "now also backing Melbourne." But the Australians "have introduced one of their sponsors, soft drink company CoCo Joy, to the parent company and the Sydney based business has now become a partner with City Football Group." Melbourne CEO Scott Munn "has been meeting his City counterparts for the past two weeks, but says that while the City brand is a big umbrella under which to shelter, the Australian team is determined to build its own identity." Munn: "We are part of the City Football Group but we are not a mini-Manchester, we are very clear on that. We want to take the parts we love but we maintain our own identity in Melbourne." CFG is "happy with the progress Melbourne is making." Munn: "Our metrics on social media are incredible. We grew 150 to 160 percent last year. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are really growing exponentially. Season tickets were up over 11,000 -- we grew 70 percent" (SMH, 7/20).
