For many American soccer fans, traveling to Camp Nou in Barcelona or Bernabeu or Metropolitano in Madrid to catch a Spanish league is a bucket list moment. The reality is that heading overseas for a match can be expensive when you consider the flight, hotels, tickets and food.
But what about if you could see a La Liga match here in North America? Turns out that on Thursday, La Liga and Relevent Sports announced a 15-year agreement to bring official league matches to the United States and Canada for the first time in league history.
LaLiga North America, the new organization, will work to cultivate soccer culture in the U.S. and Canada and will bring one La Liga match to North America every season.
Fans might need to wait a little longer to find out the matchups and venue for the historic match. A Spanish league source told CBS Sports that there is nothing confirmed yet when it comes to the teams that will play the first match, where it will be played or what season it will be. It's hard to ignore Miami as a potential host for the first match due to Relevent's connection the city. Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, is the chairman and co-founder of RSE Ventures, the parent company of Relevent, and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami hosted a sold-out El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the summer of 2017 in the International Champions Cup.
It's great news for fans of Spain's biggest clubs, and it won't be unfamiliar territory for the popular clubs. La Liga clubs regularly spend the summer in the United States for preseason, with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia doing so in recent years.
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