Serie A considers playing league games in United States

Serie A is considering expanding the financial incentives of sending the Supercoppa Italiana to league games. This season’s edition of the Italian Supercup featured a four-team format for the first time with a miniature tournament in Saudi Arabia. The foreign Supercup raised the prize money in the competition to $25 million spread across the 20 Serie A teams. Now, the Italian federation wants to share that success with Serie A play.

Serie A President Lorenzo Casini spoke at the Social Football Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He discussed the feasibility of spreading Italian soccer across the globe. The league has never staged regular season games outside of Italy. Now, Casini says Serie A may take an entire 10-game slate of fixtures overseas that features all 20 teams. While the league is evaluating it, there are several major concerns it would need to address, specifically accommodating the fans in Italy.

Regardless, Casini said two locations stand out among where Serie A could send league games if it goes beyond borders.

“In the future, the United States could be a place where it would make sense to go, thinking about their investments for the 2026 World Cup,” said Casini. “Then there is India where we will not go to play cricket, but it is a new world, and we had a champion like [Alessandro] Del Piero there who tried to play in it.”

The Italian Supercup is no stranger to games overseas. The United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have each hosted the Supercoppa Italiana on multiple occasions. However, sending regular season games to different countries would take away home games from teams in Serie A.

“The first, obviously, concerns the fans who could miss a day,” Casini said. “The place would be to be determined. Furthermore, at the moment it would not be possible without authorization from FIFA and UEFA.”

Gauging Serie A league games in other countries

Supercoppa Italiana games draw major crowds. Attendance numbers for foreign games between the league winner and the cup winner from Italy are generally strong. The 2024 Supercup Final between Napoli and Inter Milan yielded a sold-out venue of 24,900 at KSU Stadium in Riyadh. Three of the four trips to China pulled in over 66,000 viewers. The last time the game was in the United States was in 2003. At the time, 54,000 fans showed up at Giants Stadium in New Jersey to watch Juventus defeat Milan.

However, Serie A’s switch to a four-team format highlighted the potential issues of moving a mass of games abroad. Only 7,000 fans showed up to watch Napoli defeat Fiorentina. Those are two of the most prominent clubs in Italy. While they do not match the stature of Inter Milan or Juventus, Napoli and Fiorentina are certainly in the top half of popularity in Italy. If those two sides cannot fill a 25,000-seat venue, there is a slim chance other Italian clubs can. For example, if a full matchday goes to India or the United States, Frosinone against Salernitana would struggle to draw audiences.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.