Anticipation Building for Manchester City-Chelsea Friendly In New York

The suspense for the two Manchester City-Chelsea friendlies, where the Premier League clubs will play each other twice in the United States after this season ends, is increasing substantially especially since the games may feature a brand-new City manager (if reports of Roberto Mancini getting sacked this week are true). And, if Chelsea are able to be crowned Europa League champions on Wednesday when they play Benfica in Amsterdam.

Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of interest in tickets to the Manchester City against Chelsea game on Saturday, May 25 where the two teams will face each other at Yankee Stadium. And on a day where there are strong reports that Manchester City may announce that their owner will launch the 20th MLS franchise, New York City FC.

Last but not least, May 25 is also the same date of the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League Final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich that will be played at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Taking everything into consideration, the next best place to be on May 25th other than Wembley Stadium is Yankee Stadium in New York City. The event organizers have scheduled a special day for soccer fans where they’ll be televising the UEFA Champions League Final live on a 59-foot-high by 101-foot-long HD centerfield video board at Yankee Stadium.

The pre-game coverage begins at 2pm ET, which will be followed by the kick-off at 2:45pm. Then when the UEFA Champions League Viewing Party is over, the match between Manchester City and Chelsea will kick off at 5:30pm ET on the pitch at Yankee Stadium.

All tickets for the May 25 event include both the viewing party and the live match. Gates will open at 2:00 p.m. Fans should note that if the televised match runs into extra time and/or penalties, the start time of the Manchester City-Chelsea match will be no earlier than 15 minutes following the conclusion of the UEFA Champions League Final.