Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Biggest match in soccer’: World-class clubs to land in Allegiant Stadium

UNLV Football Spring Showcase

Steve Marcus

An exterior view of Allegiant Stadium Saturday, April 23, 2022.

The games

• Chelsea vs. Club América: July 16, 7 p.m., $45-$140, ticketmaster.com.

• Juventus vs. Chivas: July 22, time TBA, $50-$250, ticketmaster.com.

• Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: July 23, time TBA, $320-$1,000, ticketmaster.com.

Meet the Teams

• Chelsea FC: One of London’s most decorated clubs, “the Blues” are one year removed from winning their second-ever UEFA Champions League title with 23-year-old U.S. Men’s National Team star and Pennsylvania native Christian Pulisic as one of their best players.

• Club América: The Mexico City-based team is the winningest Mexican franchise ever with 13 Liga MX titles, most recently in the 2018-19 season.

• Chivas de Guadalajara: Archrival of Club América, the Zapopan-located club is the rare high-level soccer team that doesn’t sign international players and keeps its roster comprised entirely of Mexican natives.

• Juventus: “Juve,” based in Turin, Italy, is far and away the most storied Italian club with 36 Serie A championships—the next closest team has only 19—including nine straight from 2011-20.

• Real Madrid: Superstars Karim Benzema, a France native, and Vinícius Júnior, a Brazil native, are fresh off leading the Spanish club to its record 14th UEFA Champions League title, this one a result of a string of big-time comebacks and massive upsets.

• FC Barcelona: Despite having finished second in Spain’s La Liga and beaten eventual champion Real Madrid in the two teams’ latest match, “Barca” is rebuilding with young talent in its second year since losing longtime captain Lionel Messi.

Spanish soccer clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona will meet in a friendly, or exhibition, match July 23 at Allegiant Stadium, but such terminology shouldn’t fool anyone. It’s never entirely affable when the two archrivals meet, and there’s always something at stake.

Many consider “El Clàsico,” the name given to any match between “Barca” and “Real,” the greatest sports rivalry in the world. It’s been running for 120 years, often carrying deep political and cultural implications in Spain.

“This is the biggest match in soccer,” said Tom Braun, AEG’s senior vice president of soccer and business operations who headed efforts to bring the game to Las Vegas. “It’s two teams that are notoriously two of the biggest clubs in the world who play in the same league. This is only the fourth time they’ve played outside of Spain, and only the second time they’ve played in the United States, so this is so meaningful.”

The finale of AEG’s new Soccer Champions Tour between Real Madrid and Barcelona will mark the 283rd all-time edition of El Clàsico, with the latter holding a 116-104-62 edge when including all matches. Las Vegas has hosted several major soccer matches over the year—Real Madrid even visited Sam Boyd Stadium in the summer of 2012 and beat Mexican club Santos Laguna 2-1—but none as big as this.

The city has certainly never seen a soccer stretch like the one coming in, as Real Madrid vs. Barcelona is merely the headliner of a weeklong parade of world-class games at Allegiant Stadium. Each of the past two winners of the UEFA Champions League—the competition pitting all the best teams in Europe and largely considered the most prestigious club trophy in the world—will participate with defending champion Real Madrid and 2021 winner Chelsea FC from England.

Chelsea kicks off the festivities July 16 against Club América, Mexico City’s pre-eminent team, as part of the FC Series’ Clash of Nations. The FC Series has traditionally brought foreign teams to Orlando, Florida, for one-off games but sought to expand this year.

Las Vegas was a natural choice given the two-year-old, $2 billion stadium and the push of local officials to expand soccer offerings here.

“Bringing a match of this caliber to Las Vegas will create unparalleled excitement and energy, and we can’t wait to welcome fans from around the world,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO Steve Hill said in a news conference announcing the Chelsea game.

The Soccer Champions Tour commences six days after Chelsea vs. Club América with Italy’s Juventus and Mexico’s Chivas de Guadalajara facing off July 22.

Juventus has a pair of UEFA Champions League titles itself and is considered a worldwide power on par with Real Madrid and Barcelona. Chivas has the second-most championships in Mexico’s Liga MX, behind only Club América.

“All the teams had an interest in playing on the West Coast, and what better place to be on the West Coast than Las Vegas in a brand-new building,” Braun said. “They all saw Vegas as a great opportunity. They all wanted to come there.”

Full rosters are expected for all six teams as they prepare for their domestic regular seasons starting in August. Las Vegas would have likely missed out on such star power if this year’s World Cup was being held in its traditional July time slot, but it’s postponed until November when host country Qatar’s climate is more amenable.

The 2026 World Cup is being held in venues across the United States, Canada and Mexico, though Las Vegas is not one of the 16 host cities. City officials initially plotted to land some of the games but backed out because of the International Federation of Association Football’s cost and infrastructure demands.

Although disappointing to some fans, it shouldn’t be a hit to soccer’s long-term prospects in Las Vegas. United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights have built a rabid fanbase Downtown, while rumors of a potential Major League Soccer expansion franchise being in place by the end of the decade continue to swirl.

And with promoters like AEG and the FC Series bringing the biggest teams in the world to Allegiant Stadium, this July’s run of world-class games might just be the beginning.

“Las Vegas is a city that has a lot of opportunity for professional sports and specifically professional soccer,” Braun said. “I think there’s a lot more to come.”

This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.