We were just talking about this. Can't believe it took this long. The 4 major American sports all play regular season games overseas. This new venture called LaLiga North America's goal is to promote the league in the USA and Canada through a number of different things. This is a good idea because despite the massive popularity of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the league probably ranks fifth overall in terms of popularity in the USA behind LigaMX, EPL, MLS, and the Bundesliga
Regular Season LaLiga match coming to USA
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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Unless either Real or Barca is in the game (and the only way they will be is if they are given a ton of cash) no one is really going to care. Getafe versus Eibar simply is not going to move the needle on the American sports scene.
I think a few other teams like Atletico, Villareal, Valencia would be able to sell out MLS stadiums but I don't think that's what they are going for. I'd expect a lower-level team to play its "home game" vs Barcelona or Real Madrid in NJ, Pasadena, or JerryWorld for a huge payday instead of getting 20K or so in its small venue.
Well already one of the guys who runs one of the "lower-level" teams has come out saying that there is no way they would give up a home game against one of the top teams, because they simply cannot afford to screw over their season ticket holders like that.
And the manager at Barca has come out and said that it remains to be seen if any games will actually be played here, no matter what the announcement the other day said.
And the player's union is pissed because no one consulted them before announcing the game and they pretty much hate the idea.
Interesting. But at the end of the day, money talks. All of these concerns were probably the same concerns NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL teams have had. Maybe some compromise will be that a newly promoted side will have to give up a home game vs RM or Barca. Their fans will be so excited to be up that it wouldn't be as big of a deal.
I expect no game this year, but a Barca at a mid table team next year with the season ticket holders announced in advance. Money for the game and growing the global Barca brand will dive it. If NFL teams can justify losing one of 8 home games. to play on London, a La Liga team can justify giving up one of about 19 games to play in Miami.
The NFL teams that give up a home game to play in London, teams like the Jaguars, Rams, Raiders, Chargers, etc, are teams that don't draw well at their home stadium. Teams like Pittsburgh, Dallas, New England, Green Bay, etc. NEVER give up home games to play in London. Similarly, there is no way Real or Barca are giving up a home game for this. If they are in the game it will be someone else's home game, and while they may say nice things publicly about it you can be assured that behind the scenes they will be doing a lot of bitching. For the same reason most good NFL teams don't actually want to play in London.
Of course it would be an away game. And no, the players and coaches won’t like it. However, money talks.
Right. Publicly, Getafe will complain about season ticket holders missing out on Barca but privately, they are dreaming of how they will spend the enormous amount of money that a "home game" vs Barcelona in East Rutherford or Landover will bring in.
Of course if they only sell 15,000 season tickets instead of 20,000 (and for the record I have no idea how many tickets someone like Getafe actually sells) because the fans are pissed off that they took away one of their best games of the season ticket package then that enormous amount of money that they make by playing that game in the US suddenly becomes a huge loss.
And if you don't think that something like that would happen, how many fewer season tickets to you think Pitt football would have sold this year if before they started selling tickets Pitt announced that they were moving the Penn State game to London so that it wasn't a part of the Pitt season ticket package? 10,000? 15,000? More?
Terrible comparison. Taking away a game fans have paid for and expect to see this year is a problem. Not having it available next year won’t be a big enough deal to stop it. If it makes business sense for the Spurs to build a stadium to attract NFL games, it will make sense to move one Barca away game to the US.
So you don't think that taking away the Penn State game before Pitt started trying to sell season tickets for this season would have hurt ticket sales? After all, if you had done that then no one would have bought tickets expecting to see the game.
It's only a terrible comparison in your eyes because it shows exactly why a lower level team wouldn't want to agree to move one of their two best home games to a different country. It's only a terrible comparison because it points out the fact that doing so would cost them a boatload of money, which is highly unlikely that they could even come close to making up with one big foreign game. As I said, one of the people running one of the lower level teams has already said that there is no way that they would want to give up a home game against Real or Barca to play the game elsewhere, because of how it would affect their season ticket holders. I guess he should have just asked you and you could have set him straight.
Oh, and one more thing. Spurs most certainly did NOT build a stadium to attract NFL games. They used NFL games as a way to help pay for a stadium they have been planning to build for a long time. They were going to build a stadium anyway. The NFL is helping them pay for it.
If there is any terrible comparison here, it's that one. Because you are comparing apples to dump trucks.
If there is any terrible comparison here, it's that one. Because you are comparing apples to dump trucks.
That's what I would expect, pay a big name team, that would fill a stadium.
Wow, you are note touchy than usual today. Point stands, the Spurs stadium is built to accommodate NFL games. Someone thinks it is a good enough idea to put serious money behind.
How many season tickets would losing a Clemson home game cost Pitt?
I get it, no one involved playing or managing wants to go across the ocean to play a match. I also get no fan base wants to give up a great home game. I also get the US TV money and gate make up for the downsides. Which is why by the end of next year, I expect Barca will play an away game in Miami. Why you can’t grasp the upside is beyond me.
If they were smart, they'd just include the Barca ticket along with the others and for the the majority of the Getafe fans who couldn't make the trip across the pond, they could simply sell the Barca ticket for an extreme amount of money. A Barcelona @ Getafe ticket in the USA is more valuable than the same ticket at their home stadium.
La Liga already has a US television contract, and the proposed game would simply be a part of their already negotiated deal. Even if that game is a US television hit, and there is no reason to think that it would be significantly more watched than the exact same game played in Spain, it is only going to represent a very small portion of their television contract value.
Which point stands, the one I made that you were wrong? Yeah, sure, of course. The Spurs stadium was built to accommodate the NFL because the NFL gave the Spurs owners money to make it so. It's the NFL that wants to play games in London, the only reason why the owners of Spurs care is because it gets them some basically free money. The situations aren't comparable at all with what La Liga is doing.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/5ce1926e-a09f-11e8-85da-eeb7a9ce36e4
A big reason for this effort is designed is to boost TV revenue. It is a global world. If the NFL and the Spurs can reach a deal that works for all, there is no reason La Liga and the Dolphins can’t as well.
you guys ever see one of the lower teams' stadiums on a normal day? they don't want RM taking over their stadium so it's 1/4 empty.
this is a no-brainer. put it in miami and you could have espanyol vs eibar and it'll be a sellout. athletic vs sevilla/valencia would be huge. you don't even need RM or barca. but if they do, they'll be able to charge $300/ticket X 65,000 tickets + tv ratings + merchandise/etc. the deal for a mid-table team would be so huge that they couldn't pass it up.
this could EASILY be a $10M profit game. there's no way any spanish team is going to walk away from that.
this is a no-brainer. put it in miami and you could have espanyol vs eibar and it'll be a sellout. athletic vs sevilla/valencia would be huge. you don't even need RM or barca. but if they do, they'll be able to charge $300/ticket X 65,000 tickets + tv ratings + merchandise/etc. the deal for a mid-table team would be so huge that they couldn't pass it up.
this could EASILY be a $10M profit game. there's no way any spanish team is going to walk away from that.
I can't read your link as I am not a subscriber to the Financial Times, but La Liga already has an American television contract. So any games played before that contract expires will bring no added value to La Liga at all. And if the ratings for this one game, in a Spanish season of 380 total games, is huge by La Liga standards it's still only one game in a television contract that covers 379 other games. And if they do get one of the "big boys" to play in the game, why would we think that the television ratings for that game would be significantly better than if the game were played in Spain? Games with Real and Barca already draw better than (Spanish) average ratings when they are played in Spain. How many more fans do you think are going to tune in simply because the game is being played in Miami instead of in Eibar?
If the Financial Times thinks that playing one game per season in the US rather than in Spain is going to cause some huge increase in television ratings, and therefore the value of the television contract, then the people at the Financial Times have lost their minds.
Their TV contract is with beIN sport. Inotherwords, nobody watches La Liga in the USA. It sounds like this game in the USA will be part of a new TV deal whenever that contract is up or can be renegotiated. I think you are going to see a massive effort by La Liga in the USA. They dont seem happy about being behind EPL and Bundesliga here and why should they? They have 2 of the world's 3 or 4 biggest clubs and a pretty popular club in Atletico. Not only that but some will say the best football in the world is played in La Liga
The first game in the US is supposed to be played some time THIS SEASON. That was what the announcement was all about. One game this year and every year for the next 15 seasons.
And yeah, the people who run La Liga now realize that taking more money from BeIn rather than less money from ESPN or Fox in their last contract was not really a smart long term decision. The question is, when their current deal ends if BeIn again makes the largest bid will they turn down the extra money in order to attempt to get more people in the US interested? Because they didn't do that the last time when given the exact same choice.
The other problem that they are going to run into is who is going to be bidding on the rights when they do come up? NBC has the Premier League in most of the Saturday and Sunday time slots. Fox has rights to the Bundesliga and shows their games on most Saturdays and Sundays during the season. ESPN just signed a deal with Serie A to show their games, and many of those games will be relegated to ESPN+ because, obviously, ESPN already has a lot of sports inventory on Saturdays from the beginning of the college football season until the end of the college basketball regular season. That just happens to coincide pretty well with the soccer season. I wonder who is going to be willing to throw big money at La Liga when their most likely and theoretically best potential television partners already have full dance cards?
I do think they'd take less money to NOT be on beIN. No doubt. The one network which has not televised a major soccer match (I dont think), maybe ever is CBS. I could see CBS jumping on the Barca/Real Madrid train. Maybe buy the LaLiga rights and show the 6 Barca/RM/Atletico plus a few more on CBS main then the rest on CBSSN.
Other than that, ESPN could always use more soccer content. They only have MLS, half the USA matches, and half the UEFA qualifiers, and I guess Serie A now. Fox has MLS, Bundesliga, Champions League, Europa League, half the USA matches and half the UEFA qualifiers.
Bottom line is that Barca and RM are giant clubs. They SHOULD be available to most Americans every week. I could probably watch every single Tulsa football game on a TV network if I wanted to but only a few Barcelona games and I'd say Barca has 10-20 times the amount of American fans than Tulsa football does.
ESPN is pushing most of the Serie A content that they just bought over to ESPN+ because the soccer season overlaps with ESPNs busiest programming time of the season. ESPN is not taking college football off the air on a fall Saturday to show Spanish soccer. They probably would clear out some space on a January or February Saturday amidst all the college basketball game to show a Real or Barca game, but they aren't doing that for the lesser teams, other than maybe on an occasional basis. If ESPN bids on La Liga it will be to do just what they did with Serie A, provide more content to try to drive up subscriptions to ESPN+.
Right but RM and Barca have a broader appe than ACM, Juventus, Roma, and Inter. I think ESPN could show pretty much ALL RM or Barca Sunday games on ESPN or ESPN2 and the Saturday games that start at 10AM EST or earlier.
And if ESPN+ is the next big thing, having Serie A and La Liga certainly would be good.
TNT is broadcasting the early rounds of Champions League, I saw listings for it starting today.
La Liga does not play as many games that early as the EPL. For instance this Saturday and Sunday coming up their earliest start time is 12:15 our time. They do play more weekend games at night (their time) which they almost never do in England, so that means more 2:30 (our time) starts, but that doesn't do ESPN any good on a fall football Saturday.
TNT isn't broadcasting the early rounds of the Champions League, they have the whole contract. Europa League as well. But the interesting thing is that they are planning on showing far, far fewer Champions League games this year than Fox showed last year. And the ONLY Europa League game they plan on showing on television is the final. It appears that for the most part they bought the rights to try to pump up their streaming service, where all the rest of those games will be shown.
Which is why it wouldn't be surprising for ESPN to buy La Liga games simply to show most of them on ESPN+, or NBC to buy them to show most of them on whatever they call their streaming service (NBC Gold?). And none of that will get La Liga games in any more homes than BeIn.
A few thoughts:
1. Not sure why any Europa league games made it TV. Half the teams tank the competition.
2. Looks like TNT is still showing a whole bunch of Champions League games. As a City fan, it would be hard for TNT to show fewer games that I care about. Putting them on an app may even be better as I probably won’t have to remember to see the DVR.
3. My experience with streaming apps has improved greatly. ESPN+ is my favorite channel, by far. Insane boxing coverage and library (Conn - Lewis and Ali - Foreman) are must watch. City v. Arsenal streamed without a hitch.
4. Having a tie-in with a major network - even if most games end up on an app - is helpful. Won’t be like NBC which makes it far easier to follow City than the Cleveland Browns and promotes the heck out of it, but still a chance to reach fans who aren’t looking for games.
5. I am taking your word on kickoff times. For sure that helps explain why La Liga hasn’t had a higher profile TV deal. That said, I find it hard to believe that even during college FB season, a place can’t be found for one high profile match or two.
I believe the article I read said they are showing a total of 47 games, as opposed to last season when Fox showed over 200. Basically TNT is going to give you one and only one game in every time slot on television with the rest being on the streaming service. Last season Fox showed games on FS1, FS2 and sometimes even on the regional sports networks in the same time slot. That meant if they considered the big game of the day to be Chelsea versus Roma and you wanted to see Dortmund versus Tottenham at the same time there was still a decent chance you would get to see the game on one of the Fox channels. This year, in that situation the only way you are seeing Dortmund versus Tottenham is on the streaming service.
By the way, I didn't see this earlier but reports are that La Liga players voted unanimously against playing a game in the US. The player's union President wouldn't rule out a player's strike over the issue.
Yes, but I think they are going to two times slots per day. That gives up to four games per week during the group stages. Also, at least now they will all be in HD.
As far as the game goes, looks like you will be right. Rushing the announcement and trying to move a game this season probably killed the deal. I just can’t see La Liga risking a strike over a neutral site game.
I didn't know that, I remember it was mostly FS1 last year. So that is bad IMO that they won't show many games though.
Update
Girona is moving their January 26 home game vs Barcelona to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It has to clear a few final obstacles. Gianni Infantino is upset with it. I guess its ok for American pro sports to play regular season games in Europe but not so for European pro soccer teams to play regular season games in the US.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45557630
Girona is moving their January 26 home game vs Barcelona to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It has to clear a few final obstacles. Gianni Infantino is upset with it. I guess its ok for American pro sports to play regular season games in Europe but not so for European pro soccer teams to play regular season games in the US.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45557630
Honestly, it's not that big a deal to me, I probably won't watch that. I suppose if the game was played in Baltimore and the tickets where cheap enough, I might go see something like that? I went to a Gold Cup double header 3 years ago $47 for club seats USA/Cuba, Haiti/Jamaica-was fun. But with Barcelona, I guess they should have a good crowd, they have fans everywhere. This is not something I'd even watch on TV.
It will sell out. I would not normally watch a Barcelona-Girona match but given the uniqueness of this one, I probably will.
I just returned from a month in Barcelona, and the latest reports are that the game won’t happen in Miami. To reduce opposition from Girona season ticket holders, Barca gave them free tickets to the game in Barcelona last Sunday. The cities are only a 40 minute trainride apart, so a lot of them made the trip.
But, now the players union has voted against playing the game, and many clubs in La Liga are opposed. Of course, the other big clubs are opposed since they don’t want Barca to play one less away match than they do. The Barca board is treating the match as a done deal, but most newspapers think it won’t happen.
But, now the players union has voted against playing the game, and many clubs in La Liga are opposed. Of course, the other big clubs are opposed since they don’t want Barca to play one less away match than they do. The Barca board is treating the match as a done deal, but most newspapers think it won’t happen.
That isn't something that happened "now", the players union voted against it pretty much immediately and most of the clubs have been against it since day one.
Got an email this morning from Relevant Sports (the promoter) to sign a petition to have the Barcelona/Girona game played in Miami. Unbelievable that American teams play regular season all over the world but European teams cant be bothered. Totally stupid.
