When Jeremy Doku’s cross reached the head of Ilkay Gundogan, everyone inside Amity Hall Downtown, a small sports bar in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, froze.
Some in the crowd, dressed in the iconic Manchester City blue, stood with their hands on their knees. Others let out preemptive screams, before grabbing their friends or bar stools. When people realized that Gundogan’s header had sent the ball over the crossbar, the room shared a collective sigh. Two passionate fans fell to the floor in disbelief.
It was a miserable final minute of stoppage time for these City supporters, who watched their side start 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 fans. “I just see these people in this bar and I know them all.”
The Amity Hall scene is common in American sports bars, especially now that the Champions League is back and will feature more games than ever this season. The competition’s growing popularity among Americans cannot be overlooked, in part due to the sense of community fans have found in supporting a particular club. The competition is also sure to benefit from the growing popularity of the sport in the United States.
Jain, a graduate student at the nearby Parsons School of Design studying photography, has only lived in the city for about four months. He quickly found a tight-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 official local supporters group.
Amity Hall is a popular venue for Manchester City fans in New York City (Melanie Anzidei/Athletic)
When Jain walked into the room he was quickly recognized and greeted by fellow City fans. They also praised his shirt, which was the club’s fourth kit – as the players wore for the first time in the Inter game.
Participation was lower than usual. Weekend games, which start in the morning or early afternoon on the US East Coast, tend to draw larger crowds, as do games later in the season because the stakes are higher. Still, dozens of fans filled the tables facing the nine televisions scattered around the bar. Some came in groups, others sat alone. Some stole glances at the game while buried in their laptops – a reminder that this was all happening in the middle of a working day, as an 8pm kick-off in England means a 3pm kick-off in Manhattan.
The smaller crowds may have to do with fans choosing to watch from home, or even at work — an example of changing consumer habits that media organizations are constantly grappling with.
Over the summer, the Spanish-speaking US broadcaster Univision, international sports president, Olek Loewenstein, described Athletic how consumer habits have evolved and forced networks to change with them.
“Now we have a streaming platform that allows you to consume content wherever you are,” said Loewenstein, “The fun fact is that a lot of the content that is consumed, for example the Champions League during the day, is consumed without sound. — meaning you’re basically in the office with the game 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 of fans inside these stadiums thousands of miles away.
At Amity Hall, it included famous City fans shouting “We’re not really here!” with a group of strangers.
There is no denying that America’s interest in the Champions League is growing.
Last season’s finale in June averaged 3.62 million viewers in English and Spanish, according to the Associated Press. That was a six percent jump from last year, according to Nielsen. The game was considered the most watched sporting event in the United States on the day it aired.
American fans can have unique access points to European soccer. Maybe one’s family has roots in Europe, or maybe they were watching the World Cup in 2002 and were fascinated by Germany goalkeeper Oliver Khan. That’s what happened to six-year-old David Moncada, now a bartender at Mulligan’s Pub, a soccer bar in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Greenwich Village.
Mulligan’s is one of New Jersey’s most famous soccer bars, having been around since 2000. It makes it a point to show every major league game.
The venue reopened at noon Wednesday, even though its website said it would be closed for another two hours. The street she’s on is packed with bars that have flags with logos and other decorations from teams in more traditional American sports like the NFL, baseball, basketball and hockey. But Mulligan is different.
Mulligan’s is a favorite spot for soccer fans (Melanie Anzidei/Athletic)
Just outside the bar’s entrance is a replica of the World Cup trophy carved out of wood. The building also has a year-old mural on the exterior wall featuring some of soccer’s most recognizable stars: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Diego Maradona and more – 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 are signs associated with teams from all over the world.
Anyone who walks into Mulligan’s knows that every possible game will be going on simultaneously. That’s why you’ll see fans wearing Celtic and Inter Miami jerseys at opposite ends of the bar on Wednesday. When a fan walks in and starts asking which TV will be showing which game, they are quickly assured that “the game (you want to see) will be playing wherever you’re sitting.”
Moncada, in his Bayern Munich shirt, has worked at Mulligan’s for almost two years. His Colombian heritage drew him to a game he has played his entire life. Mulligan’s, he said, has become an even more popular destination for local media since the announcement that the 2026 men’s World Cup final will be played a few miles north at MetLife Stadium.
It’s common 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 that kick off at 12:45pm 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 short train ride from Hoboken, when the whistle blew for City’s goalless draw with Inter just before 5 p.m., half the room quickly dispersed, presumably back to normal routines. At least until Thursday…
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(Top photo: Melanie Anzidei/The Athletic)
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