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Chelsea have become the 'official professional soccer club of the Walt Disney company'. Although this has led to the inevitable jokes about them being a Mickey Mouse outfit, in fact it is part of a clever strategy to market them globally. North America is an important part of that strategy and the club will be boosted in the conglomerate's youth football programme and at its Florida sports theme park. The club think that Disney have the market reach that will allow them to reach younger fans in the United States. The club are committed to touring different regions of the US every second pre-season, with New York and Chicago already lined up for 2009 and 2011. Every other year the Blues will visit another key market, Asia, starting with China. The size of Chian's potential shirt buying middle class is estimated at 300m, the size of Europe. The broader aim is to turn the heavily loss-making club into one that breaks even and is not dependent on Roman Abramovich's money, while still achieving the ambitious aim of being world football's biggest club inside seven years. Director Paul Smith states, 'we've been growing the revenues quite dramatically in the last four years, it's our costs that have been the killer.' However, success on the pitch is the key to meeting commercial goals and Smith argues that winning the Champions League will be the catalyst for meeting Chelsea's targets. But other clubs have that as a realistic goal and Chelsea have some catching up to do on clubs like Manchester United with an established global presence.
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