LaLiga can no longer monetize her matches in Spain. So start playing them where: USA

LaLiga is about to get what she has been trying since 2018: playing an official game in the United States. Villarreal-Barcelona on December 20 in Miami It is the official recognition that European football has accepted that its future is to stop belonging only to the cities it represents.

Why now. Several stars aligned to complete a long process:

• The game will be played seven months before the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The country will be more receptive than ever football.
• Messi – precisely in Miami – is accelerating the consolidation of the MLS, against LaLiga’s interests.
• Television rights in Spain seem to have touched roof, it is a product marketed with an offer tension by The current model.

There seems to be margin to raise prices for a business, that of football, which wants to continue growing so as not to be left behind the Premier League. And to stop the fugging of talent to the Premier itself or the Saudi league.

Meanwhile, The US market offers the perfect combination To continue growing:

• More than 60 million Hispanics interested in football.
• High purchasing power.
• A Prime Time favorable that Asia cannot match.

The equation. A game in Miami can generate 50 million euros direct compared to the 5 million it would generate in the Ceramic Stadium. With more than half of LaLiga’s income, coming from international rights, this is an anticipated movement. It was seen coming.

LaLiga in fact He has been with physical presence for years in the United States by growing up there. No movement is a greater jump than hosting an official party. Not a friendly summer, but one with points at stake.

The selection. Barça was essential to be a global brand that moves large audiences. Real Madrid is as much or more, but His very long open war with LaLiga He made his participation unfeasible.

The Villarreal is also convenient: team attract enough (this year plays Champions) but at the same time manageable with its 20,000 members.

• Its president He has promised free trips to Miami For all the partners who want to attend.
• Those who do not want to travel will receive the return of 20% of the price of their fertilizer, although only one game will be lost, 5% of those played in the League.
• It is a patch that works for a club of its dimension in this first displacement, but it will hardly be sustainable if the parties abroad are normalized.

The precedent. If everything goes as expected and LaLiga wishes, with FIFA and UEFA giving green light next to a RFEF that has already authorized it, there will be no turning back. In five years we can expect much more than a single match a year and not only in LaLiga, also in other important European leagues that seek to grow. Presumably, series A and Bundesliga.

The transformation. Football is no longer a social ritual of citizen representation to become global content with consumers. The parties will go where the money is, not where the roots are.

It is the same logic that the Club World Cup has taken to the United States and The Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.

• NBA and NFL They have been doing this for a decade.
• European football has simply defeated the taboo that caused the strong local roots of its clubs.

And now what. This is not the end of the process but the beginning. Local fans who have paid fertilizers, t-shirts and television rights for decades will meet some games-in the case of Villarreal-Barça, perhaps the best of the season-playing thousands of kilometers.

This is neither good nor bad per sealthough it will generate discrepancies among local fans who reject this model. It is the logical consequence of a sport that bills as a global industry but mostly continues to operate with local structures. LaLiga is not innovating, it is doing the same as other sports for ten years.

• The question is not whether this should happen or not, it has already happened.
• The question is what other European football traditions are about to fall.

From Xataka We have contacted LaLiga to know its vision of this movement, but the organization has preferred not to make statements at the moment.

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