Spanish soccer’s elite LaLiga has continued to work towards driving its growth in the US market, launching a new partnership with grocery store chain Walmart.
Through the deal, the prominent retailer will serve as the presenting partner in the US for the iconic 'El Clasico' fixture between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
As the first-ever El Clasico presenting partner, Walmart will collaborate with LaLiga to run co-branded promotional activities surrounding the major fixture, including live watch-alongs, ‘El Clasico-inspired concerts’, in-store activations, merchandise, meet-and-greets with former LaLiga players, and more.
The next two editions of El Clasico that will take place in LaLiga across the current campaign will be staged on the weekends of October 25-26, 2025, and May 9-10, 2026.
Walmart will program around the first fixture in October with a ‘weekend of events’ in Houston, Texas, a city with a major Spanish-speaking demographic (38% of the city speak Spanish at home as of the 2014 US census).
LaLiga claims that the most recent edition of the storied derby game, Barcelona’s 4-3 win over Real Madrid on May 11, was LaLiga’s most-watched game in the US ever, having been broadcast by Disney-owned sports heavyweight ESPN.
The league is currently fighting to play its first-ever international regular season game in the US, a signifier of its commitment to the major overseas market.
If all necessary approval is received from governing bodies FIFA (global) and UEFA (European), Villarreal will face Barcelona in Miami in December.
Elsewhere in LaLiga, Valencia CF have expanded their partnership with sustainable energy firm Octopus, which becomes a founding partner of its Nou Mestalla stadium project.
Through the partnership, Octopus will install solar energy “smart systems” on the roof of the stadium and will manage the venue’s green energy consumption to help the club minimize its environmental impact.
A UK-based company, Octopus launched in the Spanish market in 2021, and began partnering with Valencia in 2023, before the approval of the resumption of the Nou Mestalla project.
Construction at the Nou Mestalla resumed in January 2025, close to 16 years after it was halted due to funding issues, courtesy of a new refinancing agreement reached in November 2024 that subsequently allowed the club to get a new loan to cover the remainder of the stadium.
Construction on the venue initially began in 2007 but was soon halted due to financial issues at the club, and has been derelict ever since, and as such is known as the 'Ghost Ground' in Spain.
Valencia continue to play at the 100+ year old 49,000-capacity Estadio Mestalla as the prospective Nou Mestalla lies empty.
