Famed Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas told an audience in Manhattan this morning that the “whole world stops, that in every corner, everybody knows El Clasico is happening,” referring to the moniker bestowed on the twice-a-year matchup between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid (the quote is from a moderator who was interpreting his answers, which were in Spanish).
With apologies to Saint Iker–so dubbed for his crazy saves–he wouldn’t have been in New York City today touting tomorrow’s ESPN + and ESPN Deportes’ broadcast of the duel were it true that everyone knows it’s occurring.
Like many entities in global soccer, La Liga, the Spanish soccer league considered the second most popular one in Europe behind the English Premier League, has been growing its presence in the U.S. It is hosting a watch party in Brooklyn tomorrow, and even has an Instagram cross promotion underway with MLB where they tout the multiple Classics this week (reminder the World Series is also known as the Fall Classic).
It’s also why La Liga has been working to bring a regular season game to the U.S. Boris Gartner, CEO of La Liga North America, a joint venture of the league and soccer promoter Relevent, told Awful Announcing after a panel discussion that talks were ongoing. La Liga is looking to take a page out of the NFL’s playbook, which plays games overseas in part to build an overseas fandom.
Casillas said he supported La Liga’s effort.
“For so many soccer fans here, so many sports fans here who grow up here and don’t get the opportunity to watch these teams that they love up close,” he said according to the moderator’s interpretation. “We continue to talk about it being part of the evolution of football right now, Iker actually sees it as a positive thing, because it means that the people are actually demanding that it happens.”
ESPN is halfway through its La Liga deal. It long ago lost World Cup rights, and the EPL rights are owned by NBC in the U.S., leaving the worldwide leader in the unfamiliar spot of not having the best of the best.
Tim Bunnell, senior vice president ESPN, described this morning’s event–a moderated discussion between Bunnell and Gartner followed by a talk with Casillas–as a state of the ESPN-La Liga relationship forum.
“We just thought it’d be a good opportunity to get press members of the soccer community together to see what, just to kind of hear how we’re doing,” he told Awful Announcing after the conclusion of the panel, held in a private club in Tribeca.
During their discussion, Gartner and Bunnell did not disclose viewership figures for ESPN +, with the ESPN executive saying engagement on the streaming platform so far this season was up 24 percent, and ESPN Deportees ratings are up 40 percent.
Previous to ESPN, La Liga’s games in the U.S. were aired by DAZN, and Gartner threw a little bit of shade at that arrangement.
“The analogy that we used at La Liga was we were in a bodega,” he said. “So for those of you that are not from New York, the bodega is the corner store, and La Liga was in a bodega. It was great. And if you wanted La Liga, you went to that bodega.”
McConnell interjected that he wanted to hear what food store ESPN was, and Gartner settled on Whole Foods over Costco.
“All jokes aside, you have not only the people that are looking for La Liga, that are going to the Whole Foods, but you have the rest of the people that are walking to the same shop to buy 100 little different things and are bumping into La Liga. And so that exposure has broadened the audience massively for us.”
McConnell pointed to several features of ESPN’s La Liga deal that make it distinct. The rights are exclusive, almost all the games are in place on ESPN +, and the American rights include Spanish language rights.
Also, to goose viewership, ESPN is having a sale on ESPN +.
“Starting today, we are offering, sort of a $20 rebate on the annual fee for ESPN plus strategically timed to be right in front of el Clasico.”
Get it while you can, the sale ends on December 2. ESPN + costs $119.99 per year.
