La Liga sign 15-year deal to have games played in the US

I love this idea and I can see I’m the only one. As long as it is restricted to one or two games per season it’s fine
I also think that it's fine. Madrid / Barcelona in Los Ángeles / Miami against some team that will be well rewarded for playing "at home".
It would be nice to include travel discounts and raffles for ticket holders/socios
 
I was thinking yesterday that the bending of the rules by Spurs to play in possibly 3 grounds this season could be a testing of the waters and a way to get rid of the rule which would prevent teams playing in more than one home stadium a season. Of course I thought this was a bit too far fetched and close to a conspiracy theory but with this news I wouldn't be surprised if the Premier League is eyeing up games abroad in the near future.
 
What's to love about it? Genuinely curious. I don't get what's good about it.

I live in America and I only get to see friendlies. An actual competitive game would be amazing. Not to mention the build up and armosphere would be American but the league Spanish.

Just seems like an exciting thing for me but like I said should be one or two games only
 
I dread the day this happens in the premier league. Why can't they just leave it alone. Who actually wants this to happen apart from executives trying to get paid even more?
 
Not surprising.....La Liga is well behind EPL in terms of revenue. Difficult to see EPL not following suit. It's all about the $.
 
To be honest if we started doing the community shield abroad I couldn't care less, it's the perfect game to be put in another country if there really is that desperation to do so, but never ever a league game.
This would be a decent compromise tbf.
 
Not really a big deal imo. It'll be Madrid v Levante or something. Away team will be happy because they don't have to play at the Bernabeu and see it as an advantage. Madrid won't care because stadium will be full of 80k Madrid fans anyway and they'll see it as a home game.
 
To be honest if we started doing the community shield abroad I couldn't care less, it's the perfect game to be put in another country if there really is that desperation to do so, but never ever a league game.
Community shield and league cup final. Couldn't care less.
 
I am lost for words. It is without doubt a farcical decision. This is surely a wind up?
 
First you take our NFL games. This is only fair. Manchester United vs Liverpool at MetLife Stadium. The NW Derby sponsored by Arby's.
You can have your gridiron games back, only weirdos in London want them anyway!

You can have Wimbledon if you want, just dig it up and put it in Central Park.
 
My question is, what happens to the season ticket holders?
Could say the same to the fans of the NFL / NBA clubs who play a game here - the club and league don't really care as it's all about promoting and making more money.

But to be honest what is one match every few years? Doesn't really bother me that much
 
Could say the same to the fans of the NFL / NBA clubs who play a game here - the club and league don't really care as it's all about promoting and making more money.

But to be honest what is one match every few years? Doesn't really bother me that much
I don't know much about the NBA/NFL structure, but I'm under the impression that those leagues have more power relative to the teams compared to the PL. Like surely for the PL, there would be a vote by the clubs?
 
I don't know much about the NBA/NFL structure, but I'm under the impression that those leagues have more power relative to the teams compared to the PL. Like surely for the PL, there would be a vote by the clubs?

We all know how well that can go...
 
It'll never work, I don't think football fans work like that where a few games a year greatly expands a fanbase
 
Community shield and league cup final. Couldn't care less.

Disagree, on the rare occasions that a smaller club reaches the final they want to play it in Wembley, not in the US ffs.

The only way fans can protest against this is to stop buying tickets. It's a bollocks decision by La Liga.
 
League games being abroad is a joke, and makes a mockery of the home/away system. Hopefully this doesn't come to the Premier League, but I imagine the money involved means the FA will want to do something similar.

If the FA plan to have some competitive games played abroad they're going to have to revamp the way football in the country currently runs. The only interest is going to be in the top teams, and the top teams already have a bloated fixture list with the two domestic cups and European competition on top of the league, so they're going to have to do something that doesn't add too many fixtures to the calendar.

I'd have to categorically rule out any league games being played abroad, and I'm not sure there's enough interest in sending the Community Shield and I wouldn't want to touch the FA Cup either.

Off the top of my head, the only real solution I'd be happy with would be reformatting the EFL Cup and playing part of that there. Would likely require some messing about with the winter break they're implementing too.

Split the tournament into two "halves"; one with the previous season's top 8 PL teams, and one with every other team that usually enters. The bigger "half" goes basically as it does now, except it'd have a winner of sorts that earn a place in the final. The half with the top 8 go to the US and play a straight knockout format against each other, with the winner, again, earning a place in the final.

Currently, reaching the final of the EFL Cup means 6 games for the teams in Europe. This would reduce it to 4, but obviously mean a trip abroad where they'd have to play 3 games in relatively quick succession (although you could probably send them out to their respective training camps following a weekend's fixtures, play the first round on the following weekend, the second in the midweek, and the third the weekend after again, before heading home pretty much straight after).

It'd provide 7 matches with some actual interest for the crowds wherever it gets played, and means that the league and more prestigious cup don't get fecked with too much other than perhaps a bit of scheduling. Could even extend it to 8 games if the other half was wrapped up before hand and play the final out there too.

If it was to hypothetically happen this season, it'd mean City, United, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Burnley and Everton head out for a couple of weeks to somewhere like the US to play a few games, before heading home again.

Could even open the hosting of this up for bidding if they didn't want to strike a deal with a particular country.
 
There's about 2 clubs that would sell tickets in the US. Try selling a game between Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano to the US audience.
 
Hate stuff like this. If it ever happens in the premier league it'll probably be time for me to call it a day with football.
 
I'm not even from the UK, and have never been there. But it would still feel very wierd watching United play PL matches outside of England. Sad direction where football is headed.

Money is now actively ruining the game (if it wasn't already). Most players, coaches and the clubs don't seem to take anything personally. All about the money now.

Maybe its time to start following the lower leagues and local clubs (local football is just rising in popularity in my country)
 
Maybe they'll host a cup final over there. Can't see how they can manage the home/away situation if they move league games abroad. Unless they have both played in a 1 week window.

It's probably a good thing for supporters in other countries but the whole thing seems plain weird.
 
There's about 2 clubs that would sell tickets in the US. Try selling a game between Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano to the US audience.

I'd go see a competitive La Liga game even if it wasn't one of the big clubs. One in a lifetime experience to see top flight football.

You can have your gridiron games back, only weirdos in London want them anyway!

You can have Wimbledon if you want, just dig it up and put it in Central Park.

Replace that with Fenway Park and we have a deal.
 
We all know how well that can go...
I assume you're referring to the transfer window. I do think it's understandable why most clubs voted that way. Clearly the main problem is every other year there is a World Cup or Euros.

With a league match being played abroad, I think most clubs will feel this would affect the relationship with the fans so not an easy sell.
 
League games is stupid. The only types of games the American fans will care about is the ties between the big 3 or 4 teams in Spain. I fail to see how games between mid-table or lower teams will garner enough support and create decent enough atmosphere in the stadium to make it worthwhile. If there's a competition more suited to this it's the Champions League.

But then again, if we were to reach a Champions League Quarter Final against say Juventus and instead of a European night at Old Trafford the game takes place in NYC... I'd be seething. Some times clubs wait for years to host big CL ties. To deprive their regular season ticket holders of a chance to attend one in person would be pretty devastating.
 
I'd go see a competitive La Liga game even if it wasn't one of the big clubs. One in a lifetime experience to see top flight football.

You would but how many hardcore football fans are there? You need to sell stars to the US audience to get the general soccer enthusiast to show up. All the stars in Spain are in 3 clubs.
 
I'd go see a competitive La Liga game even if it wasn't one of the big clubs. One in a lifetime experience to see top flight football.



Replace that with Fenway Park and we have a deal.

For £200-£300 (given our friendlies were meaningless, bereft of first team players and ~£100)?
 
I wouldn’t bother going watching Barca or Real out here too many bandwagon fans and Messi fanboys tickets would be insane but would go to other games especially Atletico :drool:. I’m not sure how well anything outside of Barca or Real do my guess is poorly. La Liga’s awful duopoly really killed interest of the league outside Spain (apart from Barca and areal) unfortunately. For example I don’t even think Sevilla-Valencia or a Sevilla derby would even sell out Stub Hub center which has a capacity less than 25k. The tickets would need to be very cheap and even then unless tons of Spaniards are coming out it wouldn’t sell out. A Barca friendly would sell more even with tickets 2 or 3 times more costly smh.

I guess the whole thing is to brand it though and hope it kicks on the way NFL does in England. I hope the Premier League doesn’t follow suit but could see it and I think it would do well because you know their fans would travel far better and the league is far better branded already. I know tons of Hispanic football fans here and they are all either Barca or Real fans and don’t watch anything outside of their team but they do watch random Premier League games.
 
I don't know much about the NBA/NFL structure, but I'm under the impression that those leagues have more power relative to the teams compared to the PL. Like surely for the PL, there would be a vote by the clubs?
In effect the Premier League is it's clubs. Any change requires a 75% vote, so nothing happens in the premier league unless 15 clubs vote for it.

Changes to the Charity shield or EFL cup would require both the Premier League and FA to agree, which might be difficult as both would want control and revenue.
 
I don't understand this. Aside from being a horrible idea how would it work?

Does one team just lose their home game for the season?
 
Disagree, on the rare occasions that a smaller club reaches the final they want to play it in Wembley, not in the US ffs.

The only way fans can protest against this is to stop buying tickets. It's a bollocks decision by La Liga.

The issue with sending just the League Cup final (or even the Community Shield) won't be where fans of smaller clubs want to see it played, it'll be that just the final being there doesn't really guarantee a match that'll be a draw for the crowd it's meant to attract. If any part of competitive English club football is to be played outside of England, the fans are already at best a secondary consideration.

The last 10 years has seen the League Cup final feature Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, Bradford, Cardiff, Birmingham and Villa. Going back another 10 years and you're seeing Wigan, Middlesbrough, Bolton, Blackburn, Tranmere and Leicester added to that. Some of those facing each other in the final.

Even the Community Shield has seen Leicester, Wigan and Portsmouth make appearances in recent(ish) years.
 
This is the worst news I’ve heard in football for as long as I’ve been following it. That’s it, it’s fecked. 25 years time it’ll just be complete corporate garbage.
 
I don't understand this. Aside from being a horrible idea how would it work?

Does one team just lose their home game for the season?

Shut up with your sensible logic. Only $$$ is important, everything else is irrelevant.