Seton Hall Students Head to Madrid and Barcelona to Study the Business of Global Sports with LaLiga

Seton Hall Students Head to Madrid and Barcelona to Study the Business of Global Sports with LaLiga

A new faculty-led course, open to students in every major, grows out of Seton Hall's partnership with LaLiga Business School and puts students in Madrid the week before the 2027 Champions League Final.

This past summer the FIFA World Cup turned North America into the center of the soccer world, with the final played at MetLife Stadium, a short drive from South Orange. Next spring, Seton Hall students will get to see how the game works as a business in one of the places that does it best.

Viva el Deporte en España, a faculty-led study abroad course led by Associate Dean and Professor Ben Pincus, will take up to 20 Seton Hall students to Madrid and Barcelona from May 21 to 29, 2027. The program is open to graduate and undergraduate students from all majors. It runs after spring finals and it is built around direct access to LaLiga, one of the world’s top professional soccer leagues, along with leaders from professional basketball, tennis and major event operations.

The week is designed to move students from the stands into the boardroom. They will tour iconic stadiums, experience live game days and sit down with league executives and front-office decision makers in sports management, marketing, media and event operations for presentations and Q&A sessions. The focus throughout is on how sports properties grow beyond their home markets: how a Spanish league builds fans in Asia or New Jersey, how broadcast and sponsorship deals cross borders and what it takes to run events at a global scale.

The group will arrive in Madrid as the city prepares to host the UEFA Champions League Final on June 5, 2027, at the Estadio Metropolitano, the biggest club match in world soccer. Spain is also a co-host of the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco, so the country's sports industry is in a period of heavy investment and attention.

Faculty Leader Ben Pincus shared, "The sports industry doesn't stop at borders anymore and our students shouldn't learn it as if it does. Spending a week inside LaLiga and the clubs around it, students see how decisions about media, sponsorship and fan engagement actually get made and they come home with contacts who work in the industry every day."

A partnership that started in South Orange
The course builds on a relationship that began on Seton Hall's own campus. On April 16, 2026, the Stillman School of Business and the College of Human Development, Culture and Media (CHDCM) hosted a LaLiga delegation for a presentation on the globalization of sports. The visitors toured the campus and joined Seton Hall students, faculty and industry professionals for a conversation around global sport, something associate provost for partnerships and global initiatives Mary Kate Naatus, Ph.D., said "has always been one of our most powerful cross-cultural languages with a unique ability to bring people together."

From that, a relationship spawned that has resulted in this incredible opportunity for Seton Hall students to work with and learn from sport executives across Spain.

LaLiga describes itself as the only sports institution to have created its own education department. Its Madrid-based LaLiga Business School offers an MBA along with master's programs in global sports marketing, law applied to sports and entertainment and football management, methodology and analysis, with internships placing students inside LaLiga, its clubs and companies across the sports industry. That network of executives, faculty and practitioners is what Seton Hall students will be stepping into.

With focuses on media, operations, marketing and beyond, this trip can be a fit for any student, regardless of major and it counts as a 4000-level BSPM or BMKT elective. It is just as valuable for a communication student interested in sports media or someone interested in law curious about how clubs deal with contract negotiations.

Enrollment is capped at 20 students. To learn more and apply, visit the program page on the Seton Hall study abroad portal or contact the Office of International Programs.

Categories: Athletics, Business, Nation and World