“It is very important to open up to the world and bet on new markets. It is an obligation and a necessity”. “We came from a 14-hour flight, very hot, time change… that nobody cares about, of course. Sleep is important and sleep is not being the best.” The first sentence is from Mikel Ubarretxenavice president of the Real societyone of the four clubs that are taking part in the first edition of the LaLiga Summer Tour, the platform created by LaLiga to organize the tours of its clubs and expand into strategic markets, such as USA and Mexico. The second sentence belongs to one of the technicians, Diego Pablo Simeoneafter the first match a goalless draw against Real Sociedad.
one and the other represent the two realities of the clubs, business and sports. Sometimes they collide, or they can collide, but at the same time they are intimately related. If you want to compete with the best and pay salaries commensurate with that level, you have to generate income. The market in Spain has a ceiling, so you have to bet on internationalization and explore other niches. And that requires trips of this type, instead of the classic preseasons of yesteryear. It is what it is.
Failure is not being here”
Those, there are limits, some minimums, that the technicians demand that they be respected. In the case of Cholo, the previous preparation in San Rafael cannot be missing, or some rest between games. It has been the case that Atlético gave up a friendly because the game was set a day before and not a day after and the rest between games that Simeone demands was not respected. It is not the case this preseason, but it has happened on other occasions. As to imanol, what he asks is that the trips be comfortable as far as possible and he places a lot of emphasis on the fact that the training fields of the destinations are in good condition. “It does not demand too much”, they assure from within the Royal Society. But the lawn thing is important. In fact, he was not very happy with the state of the pitch at the BBVA stadium, which already in the training session prior to the game he verified that it was not in the best condition. mendilibar He ‘only’ made it a condition to play 8 games in the preseason and that the first three be against less demanding rivals.
The technicians, insist those responsible for the four clubs, understand the needs of the clubs. Although they also recognize that if they had been allowed to choose, they would have preferred to do the preseason in their respective sports cities. “There are documentaries on Netflix, Amazon… football is a show and you have to sell it and see it in such a way”explains Mikel Ubarretxena.
With these conditions of those who rule in the sports field, those responsible for making the club grow in other facets put together the puzzle to carry out the preseason. They have not had it easy at Atlético, when they received the proposal from LaLiga to go to Mexico and San Francisco they had to make it fit in with the tour of Korea. the journey of sel to Monterey It meant a brutal lag of 15 hours. It was difficult to combat the jet-lag, to the point that a player opened his eye at 3 in the morning and could not go back to sleep. But Atlético wanted to be in a strategic market, the United States represents 15% of the club’s international sales and in Mexico it even owns a team, the athletic st louiswho plays in the first Mexican division.
“Failure is not being here”says Ubarretxena. None of the clubs give direct figures of what it means to play in Monterrey, Guadalajara and San Francisco, but they claim to be “very satisfied” with the agreement and everything coincides in one thing: it is not only what the tour supposes in income, but the commercial agreements that are closed with regional partners and the ‘make brand’ in the region, gaining the engagement of the fans to grow in the future. The economic impact, they say, must be seen in the long term. “We are in the phase of sowing, not of harvesting”aim José María del Nido Carrasco, Vice President and CEO of Sevilla. Who does go a little further is Juan Userosbusiness director of Betis. He acknowledges that the tour does not pay the payroll of one of its players, “but it is an important part.” “It is very very very profitable, we will be delighted to come every year”he adds. Three “verys” that make it clear that Betis is delighted with the tour. At least, the financial part of the club. And it is that, according to Useros, the Verdiblanco club was left during the pandemic without 20 million tickets and that hole must be covered as soon as possible. “We hope to be financially sustainable in a year and a half to two years,” he says.
Questions and answers
Let’s go to the question part. Why Atlético, Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Betis and not other clubs? Reply Boris GartnerCEO of LaLiga North America: “Many wanted to come. The four teams that have the most audience in the American market are taken into account.“. Removing, obviously, to Madrid and Barawho get better dividends by managing their tours themselves. Does this mean that there are clubs that will never come even if they want to? Well, if those criteria do not change, it seems that they do, because it seems difficult for certain teams to slip among the most watched, although one option that the CEO of LaLiga North America is considering is to expand the number of teams that are part of the tour. And even change the format for something that the North American public likes more, something more ‘Yankee’: playoff mode and there is a winner. The parties are chosen by the same audience criteria, because they do not all face each other, and that is where that Sevillian derby that En-Nesyri decided at the last minute in Guadalajara.
Another question that floats in the air is whether Madrid and Bara will ever attend these matches with LaLiga: “If they want, they will come. Of course we are interested in having them come”says Gartner, who is not particularly concerned and points out that the greats of the Premier (Manchester City, Arsenal, United, Chelsea…) are also on their own.
We don’t sign anyone according to strategic markets, but vice versa”
More questions: Why in the United States and Mexico? The answer is given again by Boris Gartner: there are 190 million Hispanics between the two markets. “LaLiga has an advantage that no other league has, and he is that contact with the Hispanic, to whom you don’t have to sell football because he already likes it and has passion. And the demographic plays in favor of LaLiga because the Hispanic public will continue to grow”.
The ‘boom’ Saved and other information of interest
For Betis, the second country in social networks, after Spain, is Mexico, with the figure of Saved as the main claim. 15% of his followers in networks come from Mexico and the United Stateswhere they also have two clubs in each country.
For La Real, of course, it is also a strategic market, with the Silva as the best-selling shirt so far, but if there is a market for the San Sebastian team in which it breaks all the molds, it is Japan, where the Kubo boom has made them grow 770% in audience. It is among the top five most watched teams in the world in Japan and six of the 10 most watched LaLiga games in the country were from Real Sociedad. The San Sebastian club is already preparing a trip to play in Japan, but in this case post-season because they do not consider it the best country to go for a pre-season due to its conditions.
LaLiga has an advantage that no other league has, and it is the contact with the Hispanic”
In the case of Sevilla, Mexico is the country with the third most followers on its social networks (the first is logically Spain and the second Morocco, with the figures of En-Nesyri and especially Bono as great claims) and the United States the eighth. In Mexico, it is also the third LaLiga team with the best audiences.. The club that presides over jose castro has experienced enormous growth in its social networks, more than six million new followers in the last season, placing itself as the fourth club in networks of LaLiga, behind Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético. Del Nido, in any case, makes it clear: “We don’t sign anyone according to strategic markets, but vice versa”. That is to say, Sevilla does not go to sign a Chinese footballer to exploit that market, but rather signs a footballer who suits them sportingly and financially and then starts working on that territory if they consider it necessary.
“They are as fans of their teams as the one who goes to the stadium”
The four Spanish clubs have received the love of the people, especially in Mexico, where there is more passion for soccer. One only had to take a look at the door of the Atlético hotel in Monterrey. “People 24 hours a day there waiting at the hotel, sometimes we forget about the passion and the follow-up that LaLiga has outside of Spain. These fans are getting up here at 6 in the morning to watch the games. The way I see it, they are just as much fans of LaLiga and the teams as the one who goes to the stadium”, points out Boris Gartner.
The CEO of LaLiga North America points to another factor why he believes that soccer in the United States is going to explode in the coming years and therefore we must be close. It is about the number of big championships that it is going to organize: America’s Cup in 2024, Club World Cup in 2025, World Cup in 2026 and Olympic Games in 2028. And it also opts for the Women’s World Cup in 2027. So it is mandatory that the tour of America become a classic on the LaLiga Summer Tour. This year is only the beginning.
