Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
About 20,000 soccer fans filed into Allegiant Stadium for a friendly between Juventus of Italy and Chivas de Guadalajara Friday, just a warmup for Saturday’s international blockbuster match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the same venue
For tonight’s game, nobody sat in the top bowl though the game stats say attendance was 31,261 in the 62,500-seat stadium. Ushers told LVSportsBiz.com that 20,000 were expected.
The Barcelona-Real Madrid friendly is a sellout in a market that is being considered for an expansion Major League Soccer team.
Allegiant Stadium hosted previous international soccer games last year, so the Friday-Saturday doubleheader is not necessarily new ground.
These two matches are among the five friendlies in AEG’s Soccer Champions Tour. Los Angeles-based AEG knows Las Vegas well. It partnered with MGM Resorts International to build T-Mobile Arena and its former sports venues wing manages Allegiant Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders.
AEG also announced a new partnership for these soccer matches being played from today to July 30. AEG and fan app Socios.com launched a new marketing partnership for this inaugural soccer tour.
Having international soccer teams play in Las Vegas is a boost for tourism and visitor counts.
For the record, Juventus defeated Chivas, 2-0.