When Jeremy Doku’s cross reached Ilkay Gundogan’s head, everyone inside Amity Hall Downtown, a small sports bar in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, froze.
Some of the crowd, dressed in the iconic Manchester City blue, stood bowed with their hands on their knees. Others let out preliminary screams, before grabbing their friends or a drink. As people realized that Gundogan’s diving header had sent the ball over the crossbar, the room shared a collective groan. Two passionate fans collapsed to the floor in disbelief.
It was an agonizing final minute of stoppage time for these City supporters who watched their team kick off the 2024-25 Champions League with a goalless draw at home to Italy’s Inter Milan. They felt the disappointment keenly, despite being some 3,334 miles (5,300 km) from the Etihad Stadium.
“Sports is the best thing to bring people together,” said Jai Jain, one of the gathered fans. “I only see these people at this bar, and I know them all.”
The scene at Amity Hall is common in American sports bars, especially now that the Champions League is back and will feature more games than ever this season. The growing popularity of the competition among Americans cannot be ignored, fueled in part by the community spirit that fans have found in supporting a specific club. The competition is also sure to benefit from the growing popularity of the sport in the United States.
Jain, a graduate student at nearby Parsons School of Design studying photography, had only lived in the city for about four months. He quickly found a close-knit community among the Manchester City fans who regularly gather at Amity Hall, which is the official bar for the New York Sky Blues, the team’s local official supporters group.
Amity Hall is a place for Manchester City fans in New York (Melanie Anzidei/The Athletics)
When Jain entered the room, he was quickly recognized and greeted by other City fans. They also complimented his jersey, which was the club’s fourth kit – as worn by the players, for the first time, in the Inter game.
The turnout was smaller than usual. Games on weekends, starting in the morning or early afternoon on America’s East Coast, tend to draw larger crowds, as do games later in the season because the stakes are higher. However, dozens of fans filled the tables in front of the nine televisions scattered around the bar. Some arrived in groups, others sat alone. Some stole glances at the match while buried in their laptops – a reminder that this was all happening in the middle of a weekday, with the 8pm kick-off in England meaning a 3pm kick-off in Manhattan.
The smaller crowd could have to do with fans choosing to watch at home, or even at work – an example of the changing consumption habits that media organizations are constantly grappling with.
During the summer, the global president of sports of the Spanish-language American broadcaster Univision, Olek Loewenstein, described to The Athletics as consumer habits have evolved, forcing networks to change with them.
“Now we have a streaming platform that allows you to consume content wherever you are,” said Loewenstein, “A funny fact is that a lot of content consumed, for example, the Champions League during the day, is consumed without audio. — which means that you basically it’s in the office with the game on while you’re doing something else.”
But the draw to watching the game in person and around other fans of the same team is watching it with the sound on.
And, in some cases, so you can sing along to the various chants that supporters belt out inside those stadiums thousands of miles away.
At Amity Hall, that included shouting from City fans the famous, “We’re not really here!” with a group of strangers.
There is no denying that American interest in the Champions League is growing.
Last season’s finale in June drew a combined English/Spanish-language audience average of about 3.62 million viewers, according to The Associated Press. This was a six percent jump from the previous year, according to Nielsen. The match was considered the most-watched sporting event in the United States on the day it aired.
American fans may have unique entry points to European football. Maybe a person’s family has roots in Europe, or maybe they watched the World Cup in 2002 and became fascinated by Germany’s goalkeeper Oliver Khan. That’s what happened to six-year-old David Moncada, now a bartender at Mulligan’s Pub, a football bar in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Greenwich Village.
Mulligan’s is one of the most famous soccer bars in New Jersey, having been around since 2000. It makes a point of showing every Champions League game.
The location opened at noon Wednesday, though its website said it would be closed for another two hours. The street it is on is lined with poles that have flags with logos and other regalia of teams in the more traditional American sports such as NFL, baseball, basketball and ice hockey on display. But Mulligan’s is different.
Mulligan’s is a favorite spot for soccer fans (Melanie Anzidei/The Athletics)
Just outside the pub’s entrance, there is a replica World Cup trophy carved out of wood. The building also has a long-standing mural on an exterior wall featuring some of football’s most iconic stars: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Diego Maradona and others – including current USMNT captain Christian Pulisic and Ireland’s own Paul McGrath. Inside, it is decorated with an assortment of football memorabilia, from a 2024 Copa America scarf to one from the 2007 FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United. There is signage relating to teams from all corners of the globe.
Anyone who walks into Mulligan’s knows that every possible game will be on at the same time. That’s why you’ll see fans wearing Celtic and Inter Miami jerseys on opposite ends of the bar on Wednesdays. When a fan walks in and starts asking which TV will be showing which match, they are quickly assured “that the game (you want to see) will be on wherever you sit”.
Moncada, in his Bayern Munich shirt, has been working at Mulligan for almost two years. His Colombian heritage drew him to the game he has played his entire life. Mulligan, he said, has become an even more popular destination for local media since it was announced that the 2026 men’s World Cup final will be played a few miles north at MetLife Stadium.
It’s normal to see people on their laptops while watching a game, Moncada said, or carrying their golf clubs between rounds. The crowd this Wednesday was tamer than usual, at least for the first set of Champions League games starting at 12:45 local time. He expected a bigger turnout today (Thursday), when Arsenal and Barcelona will be among the teams playing.
Back at Amity Hall, just a quick train ride from Hoboken, when the final whistle blew on City’s goalless draw with Inter just before 5pm, half the room quickly dispersed, presumably returning to their regular routines. At least until Thursday…
GO DEEPER
Champions League Briefing: De Bruyne injury, Ronaldo tributes and a late late goalkeeping error
(Top photo: Melanie Anzidei/The Athletic)
