Eintracht Frankfurt’s focus on North America is a key part of the Bundesliga club's push to gain global relevance while competing with better-known German teams like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Eintracht Frankfurt opened a U.S. HQ in N.Y. earlier this month after having opened an Asian HQ in Beijing in April ’19. Club CEO Axel Hellmann said, “We’re a mid-class club in the Bundesliga; we are not a well-known brand by the Champions League in Europe. We have to go in another way and have another approach to establish our interests in the U.S. More long-term and with more content and substance than maybe some others who, just by the media exploitation or making deals, can grow.”
Eintracht Frankfurt has spent as much time Stateside as possible since signing a shirt deal with job site Indeed in ’17. In addition to being the only Bundesliga club with a U.S.-based shirt sponsor, Eintracht Frankfurt’s first team has made four trips to the States in the last three years. Hellmann said that number is the most of any German team in that time. The club plans to make at least one trip to the U.S. per year for the next five years.
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While Hellmann acknowledged that “of course there are commercial interests” his organization will pursue in the U.S., he said that one of Eintracht Frankfurt’s primary goals for the North American market is to connect education and soccer via grassroots academies. “We think we have a very good concept to establish soccer academies in the U.S. with the right partners,” Hellmann said. “Our interests are not only to find partners paying us, but we are also willing to invest into those projects. Our interests are not selling licenses, selling merchandise, but having really long-term interests.”
The Bundesliga club is also planning an initiative involving outreach to the many Frankfurt natives who have moved to North America since Eintracht Frankfurt was founded 120 years ago. The plan, Hellmann explained, is to invite those fans to a friendly tentatively scheduled for ‘21. “What we’d like to follow is, the relatives (of former club members), the people from later generations who settled down in the U.S., where are they?” he said. “What do they do? Are they still connected to Germany, to Frankfurt, to the club?”
