La Liga: Spanish Soccer League Heading to China and United States?
According to Yahoo!, La Liga is opening new offices in the United States and even China.
Europe is home to the most popular and successful soccer leagues in the world known as the "big four." Those leagues include the English Premier League, Italian Series A, Bundesliga and La Liga.
The United States has never completely embraced soccer to the fullest extent, especially with so much competition from the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association. Major League Soccer (top soccer league in the U.S.) shows no signs of taking over in the U.S., and many fans still prefer to watch different leagues in separate time zones.
"We run the risk of having the Premier League become the NBA of football in the next five years, with the rest of European leagues turning into secondary tournaments. We all know that every talented basketball player discovered anywhere in the world ends up going to the NBA, and if the European football industry and the Spanish football industry don't react, we will also be losing talented football players," Javier Tebas said, according to Yahoo!
Tebas is absolutely correct. There is so much basketball talent around the world, but eventually, the best players end up in the NBA. South America has some of the greatest soccer players to ever play, but eventually, they almost always end up in a European League. The only questions after that is, Which UEFA league gets him and for how much? It's an unfortunate scenario for CONMEBOL, but it's the nature of the business.
La Liga can certainly hold their own against the EPL because of the superstar factor. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are viewed as the two best players in the world. Real Madrid and Barcelona are also the top two most valuable soccer clubs in the entire world. The criticism with La Liga among some soccer fans is that it does not have a lot of parity. Many fans call La Liga a "two team league," and feel that those two clubs simply outspend everyone else to gain success.
"The U.S. is really crucial for our strategy. Soccer is going through a revolution there. The market is growing fast and we want to take advantage of this opportunity to do business there," La Liga's general director, Ignacio Martinez Trujillo, said.
The NFL has been experimenting with games in London annually since 2007. Sports are more global now than ever before, which makes this a wise experiment for La Liga. The U.S. will never favor soccer over American football, but international soccer game ratings have been increasing tremendously. Mexico is also a big factor in this one. Many Mexican-Americans love the game, and they too have watched talented players (such as Javier Hernandez) leave for La Liga. Having a La Liga team close to home would be a blessing for Mexican soccer fans.
Then there's China. Recent reports showed that Rastar Group has bought a share of La Liga's Espanyol. Even last year the Chinese Wanda Group's owner Wang Jianlin bought 20 percent of Atletico Madrid, which he still owns. China, like the U.S is a wise investment for Spain's top league because they are also the most populated country in their continent, and soccer popularity is increasing domestically. Keisuke Honda, Asia's top player, hasn't played in a single Asian based league since 2007.
La Liga and the EPL are on a big collision course. There's no doubt about it. Television rights and adds will be as competitive as ever before, and these two leagues will never have a shortage of talent. Let's also not forget that the two biggest sponsors in La Liga are Emirates and Qatar Airways, which would benefit heavily from expanded traveling. Playing games overseas outside of Spain could be the biggest thing to happen in La Liga history.
Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1