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Real Madrid and Manchester United will play at Michigan Stadium Saturday, August 2, 2014 at 4 p.m.

(AP file photos)

It's finally official.

For real this time.

Manchester United and Real Madrid are coming to a football stadium near you.

The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced Friday that the European soccer powers will play at Michigan Stadium Saturday, Aug. 2 (4 p.m., FOX) as part of the Guinness International Champions Cup. The announcement comes more than two months after WorldSoccerTalk.com reported that the clubs would play at Michigan Stadium as part of the eight-team tournament spanning across 12 U.S. cities.

Tournament organizers teased fans with venue announcements for the other games throughout the month of February, but have been mostly mum on the Manchester United vs. Real Madrid game besides a couple of announcement fumbles. The University of Michigan was momentarily listed as the host for the game on the ICC website, and emails sent out by tournament organizers listed Ann Arbor as a host city before either the University or tournament officials would confirm a deal had been struck.

Friday's announcement removed the last remaining shred of doubt that the game would actually happen in Ann Arbor.

“We are excited about the opportunity to host two of soccer’s premier clubs at Michigan Stadium,” said Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon in a release. “This is a rare chance for the Ann Arbor community and thousands of soccer fans in and around the southeast Michigan area to watch elite level professional soccer. This event will have a positive economic impact on the city of Ann Arbor and the state of Michigan and will continue to extend the Michigan brand internationally.”

Pre-sale tickets for the match will be available Monday, April 7 at 8:30 a.m. for donors to Michigan Athletics and people who are season ticket holders (student and otherwise) for any Michigan team. University of Michigan faculty and student-athlete alumni will also get access to tickets before sale is open to the the general public Thursday, April 10 at 8:30 a.m.

Tickets prices range from $45-$189 and will be on sale through the Michigan Athletic Tiicket Office.

Manchester United (England) and Real Madrid (Spain) are respectively their country's most successful franchises in domestic and international competition and two of the world's most popular sports franchises. The International Champions Cup has added teams with higher international profiles in its second year of existence with apparent hopes to boost attendance, as no games sold out during the tournament's inaugural year in 2013. What Michigan Stadium's capacity would be for a soccer game isn't clear, but with an official capacity of 109,901, the stadium is equipped to break the United States record for attendance at a soccer game of 101,799. The record was set at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. in 1984 when France beat Brazil in the Olympic gold medal match.

According to a report by WLRN -- National Public Radio’s South Florida affiliate -- the closest any venue came to hosting a capacity crowd during the inaugural tournament was at Sun Life Stadium (soccer capacity: about 70,000) in Miami and it was still a couple thousand shy. The final between Real Madrid and Chelsea and third place game between the LA Galaxy and AC Milan were played back-to-back and drew 67,273 fans. There were tens of thousands of empty seats at Sun Life and other stadiums around the country during the earlier rounds of the tournament.

“The Big House represents the best in American sports and Manchester United and Real Madrid are the most famous teams in the world,” said Relevent Sports CEO Charlie Stillitano said in a release. Relevent Sports is a marketing company working with the tournament. “Whether you are one of the hundred thousand fans packing University of Michigan Stadium or viewing nationally on FOX, we know the atmosphere will be unlike anything fans have ever seen.”

The Aug. 2 game will be the last of pool play before the championship and third place games, scheduled for Aug. 4 in Miami.

Photo gallery: Manchester United and Real Madrid will play at the Big House this summer 12 Gallery: Photo gallery: Manchester United and Real Madrid will play at the Big House this summer



Pete Cunningham covers sports for The Ann Arbor News. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.