Inside the brand’s immersive Saturday Showdown Event in L.A.
Football, basketball and now soccer are Americans’ top three favorite sports, according to a recent survey by The Economist. Soccer surpassed baseball as the third-most popular sport, and brands like Walmart are taking note of the shift.
Last summer, Walmart signed a multiyear partnership with Major League Soccer and Leagues Cup, leading to the launch of Walmart Saturday Showdown, which spotlights a marquee MLS matchup each Saturday throughout the regular season. Making the sport more accessible is at the heart of Walmart’s MLS play, so ahead of the new season’s opening weekend, the brand partnered with the league and Apple TV on an immersive, kickoff fan event in L.A. on Feb. 20.
“With these IRL experiences, we have the opportunity to meet younger, more savvy, more diverse customers where they are in a way that allows us to tangibly show versus tell how Walmart has evolved for the next generation of shoppers,” says Allison Rand, director, head of experiential marketing and cultural engagement at Walmart. “Our goal is to give shoppers and fans more access to the things that they love because we recognize that soccer is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and we want to be a part of how we get customers closer to that.”
To hype up fans before LAFC took on defending MLS Cup champ Inter Miami CF, Walmart began the evening with a pre-show celebration that included freestyling, a re-creation of the stadium tunnel walkout experience, merch customization stations, f&b and a throne made entirely out of soccer balls for photo moments. Attendees could test their soccer knowledge with trivia and kicking skills at a digital “Tic-Tac-Toe” board for prizes.
For the second half of the night, Walmart treated attendees to a star-studded, showdown-themed variety show hosted by Roger Bennett, founder and ceo of the Men In Blazers Media Network. He was joined by MLS legends Landon Donovan, Taylor Twellman, Diego Valeri and Carlos Vela, as well as actor Anthony Ramos and women’s soccer stars Julie Ertz and Melissa Ortiz.
Fans were up close with the talent to soak in commentary on the former players’ historic matchups and get a preview of this season of Walmart Saturday Showdown. An added interactive element, the soccer stars engaged in onstage shootout and trivia challenges, giving the audience a chance to win prizes like tickets to an upcoming LAFC game or an autographed matchday ball.
“We were surgical with how we promoted it so that we could prioritize getting the biggest fans in the room,” Rand says. “We worked closely with our partners at MLS to pull various targeted levers like email lists in the local market, and we got some love on social from LAFC… We invited a group of influencers to come and post about their experience to give people a peek behind the curtain of what Walmart is doing in the space.”
This Walmart Saturday Showdown event continued to build on positive momentum generated from last year’s mini debut experiences in partnership with MLS and LALIGA, Rand says, but Walmart is still early in its soccer journey and will be testing new activation formats and evolving its experiential strategy to optimize “the secret sauce.”
“I’ve been taking a look at some of the survey verbatims,” she adds, “and one I have is ‘I never thought that Walmart was this cool. It was a great experience, and I hope to see more. I get to see my favorite player. What more can I ask for?’ And this is exactly the kind of stuff that I want to hear because, ultimately, our job is to flip expectations and reframe what they thought they knew about our brand.”
With FIFA World Cup 2026 coming this summer, we’ll be keeping an eye on how Walmart activates the soccer fandom next. More to come…
Photos: Courtesy of Walmart
