Another soccer tournament has come and gone with the International Champions Cup concluding with Manchester United defeating Liverpool 3-1 in Miami. In addition to those two teams, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Manchester City, Olympiacos and AC Milan participated in the tournament. The games were held all over North America with some venues including the Cotton Bowl, Yankee Stadium, Soldier Field and Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
The most expensive game of the tournament was at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor between Real Madrid and Manchester United. Despite the stadium being one of the largest in the country, and the game breaking the all-time attendance record for a soccer game in the United States with 109,318 people in attendance, it was easily the most expensive match on the secondary market by a wide margin. The match had an average price of $271 with the cheapest ticket selling for $125. The match ended as a 3-1 win for Manchester United
To put in perspective how expensive the match in Michigan was, the next most expensive of the tournament was between Liverpool and Manchester City at Yankee Stadium with an average price of $176.18. That's a decrease of 35 percent despite featuring two of the best teams in the Premier League. The game ended in a 2-2 tie with Liverpool prevailing 3-1 in penalty kicks.
The cheapest match of the tournament was at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia with an average price of $96.69. The match was between Inter Milan and AS Roma and ended as a 2-0 win for Inter Milan. Overall the 13 games in the tournament averaged $139.
In the final there were tickets as cheap as $20 on the secondary market, but the average price was $142.75. That's an increase of the prices from the final last year, which averaged $135.82 with Real Madrid facing Chelsea. It certainly wasn't a disappointing game for fans of the ICC with both Manchester United and Liverpool ranking among some of the best teams in the world. Manchester United is one of the most valuable franchises in all of sports, with Forbes listing its worth at $2.8 billion, while Liverpool is valued at $691 million. It was probably one of the more exciting games hosted at Sun Life Stadium, with the Miami Dolphins the usual inhabitants.
The tournament broke the participating teams into two pools, with Manchester United, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and AS Roma in Pool A. Liverpool, Manchester City, Olympiacos and AC Milan made up Pool B. Both Manchester United and Liverpool advanced from their respective pools with undefeated 3-0 records and 8 points with each collecting one win on penalty kicks.
It was a good opportunity for fans in the U.S. looking for top-notch soccer games with the World Cup over, especially with the tournament consisting of teams that play the majority of their games in Europe. While the tournament is over, there are still plenty of other ways for soccer fans to get their fix, including the ongoing MLS season.