ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide a preliminary examination of FC Barcelona's position within the contemporary US sport market. Utilising an assemblage-oriented, contextual cultural studies approach, the discussion grounds the FC Barcelona phenomenon within the aggregate of determinant forces through which it has come to being as a globally present superclub. This involves an explication of the club's strategic reformation as a transnational sport entertainment corporation in the early twenty-first century, highlighting the commercial and cultural implications of this process. The discussion focuses on the various ways that the club's local identity has been compromised, largely through the influence of its Disneyized commercialised and spectacularised diversification. This process is subsequently explicated within, and through, and examination of FC Barcelona's (re)production in the US, as the corollary of already existing American assemblant forces and relations that have contoured the translated FC Barcelona assemblage's generic and superficial (re)formation within the late capitalist US context. While acknowledging the determinist nature of the analysis, the conclusion points to the sporting implications of the club's forays into the US market, yet also the potential for expressions and experiences of resistance towards the generic banality of the FC Barcelona US’ assemblage.
