MUMBAI: The first Manchester United Café Bar was launched on Saturday at Palladium Mall at High Street Phoenix in Mumbai's Lower Parel suburb.

The launch day coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the Munich air disaster in which eight members of the Man-U football team were killed. The Café Bar, measuring 3,000 sq ft draws a lot of components from Old Trafford and has a seating arrangement of 120 and standing space for 40 people.

Some of the key design features of the outlets include the Wall of Fame, the Skybox, a private section, the Dugout area, where players sit and strategise and giant projector screens to screen live telecast of soccer games and other major sporting events.

There is also the popular Managers Bench, a replica of the area where coach and players meet at the playing field and a lively island bar with video walls showing live telecasts of all major sports events. Besides, the café bar will also have a section where official Man-U merchandise will be available.

“A lot of components of the café bar draw inspiration from Old Trafford, which is also known as theatre of dreams and the architecture is mainly contemporary English. We have a dug out field, where key team players sit before match starts, we also have a interactive DJ, so we are a little greater than a greater sports bar and we are going to be doing a lot of music activities in this place as well, ” said Manchester United Café Bar (Mumbai) business head Prashant Narula.

Billionaire Sports, which is the partner for MUFB Asia in India, has partnered with Mirah Group in the western region for the Manchester United Café/Restaurant and bar. “We have tied up with Billionaire Sports in western region and we are going to be exploring various cities in the western region,” Narula added.

Manchester United Food & Beverage (Asia) has identified India as a high-potential market with a colossal Manchester United fan base in India at an estimated 20 million. Manchester United is one of the richest clubs in the world with the highest sponsorship revenue among all football clubs. The Man-U Café Bar Mumbai community on facebook already boasts of 2340 members.

Queried about marketing plans, Narula said, “We are going to be tapping various mediums of marketing which are there and it’s going to be interactive and engaging activities which are going to be there. We will use radio, websites, facebook, twitter, newspaper. We are going to be touching all facets of the medium of communication because this is a big community, so there is a need for communication through various mediums.”

The Man-U café bar was first slated to open at Nirmal Lifestyle Mall at Mulund, but was shelved since Lower Parel was finally selected as the location for the Man-U Café Bar launch.