On the shore of the beach, with the taste of a lobster machaca, a new story in Mexican soccer begins to cook. The headquarters is Baja California Sur and the team is Athletic La Pazwhich starting this summer is participating in the MX Expansion League, after a birth process dating from the Third Division. Its goal is to consolidate itself as a hotbed for soccer players, position itself as a brand and dream of occupying a place in the League MX.
“What we are looking for is to consolidate a sports and human project, which will grow with the economic issue. It can be said that it is too risky to arrive at a place where there are no historical or metrics on which to base ourselves to see if people have a ticket cost in mind, if the fans are faithful, if the place complies, then our responsibility is Give your best and meet expectations. The responsibility is ours more than that of the fans”, explains Samuel Hernández, president of the Athletic La Pazin an interview with The Economist.
Athletic La Paz emerged from the group led by Arturo Lomelí, a businessman from Jalisco whose tequila brand, Casa Azul, has even appeared in photos with Michael Jordan. This consortium has had a Third Division team called Mazorqueros, based in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, since 2016, but as of this year it decided to look for a new place that would be capable of receiving a higher division.
After an eight-month market investigation in which La Paz and three other cities were analyzed, the board decided to move to the capital of Baja California Sur, which had never had a First or Second Division soccer team (either First “A”, Ascent MX or Expansion). The other sports franchises that compete at the venue are the basketball Manta Rays and La Paz F.C. in the Third Division, but Atlético is projected to be the highest ranking.
“What was different about La Paz (with respect to other cities) was the infrastructure and quality in the sense of being even a tourist attraction, the air connections, the internal mobility, that also for the same player it was not such an expensive city. and viable, that the cost of living is not so high, that it is very accessible to have a good quality of life and that it is a city with high security, with a low crime rate”.
The new team’s stadium is called Guaycura and has a capacity for 5,200 spectators, so it could not be a candidate for promotion to the League MX in the short term (where 20,000 fans are required). The directors are aware of this and rather plan first to consolidate themselves within the local market before aspiring to reach the First Division.
“The truth is that we have not found rivals in the sports sector in Peace. Far from that, I see the team as a different show, entertainment, where the fans can identify and fall in love with the project. Today there is a lot here about cars, fishing, golf, baseball, but for us, from a human point of view, the more sports activity there is, the better off we are going to be”.
the door in the Expansion League opened when Orlegi Group He stated that he would put the Tampico Madero franchise up for sale. The business group of Athletic La Paz He talked and got along with the sellers, bought the membership certificate and won his place in the second most important league in Mexican soccer.
—What guarantees did the Expansion League ask of you in order to establish itself as a new team?
—“There is a notebook that has to be filled out: you must have a well-defined legal structure, be well constituted and have the financial backing of where you are going to obtain your income, not only an economic projection of the team’s business, but who is behind of the team, how it is going to be corrected, who are the legal figures, who are the proxies and then demonstrate where your income comes from five years ago and five years forward, with what you have to demonstrate solvency and what you are going to have liquidity for your team”.
This confirmed that the team will live in La Paz for at least five years, although the vision of the directors is to establish itself in the long term. They describe that in the second year “financial health” will arrive and in the third they will already be able to have a return on capital.
Samuel Hernández tells this newspaper that the team’s annual operating expense will reach 40 million pesos, although between 30 and 40% of its budget will come from the two million monthly subsidy granted by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) to the clubs. de Expansión (as long as they are not subsidiaries), as well as the sale of broadcasting rights, which in that league are sold jointly with the rest of the clubs.
As for sponsors, the team has six at the start of the Apertura 2022 tournament, although its ideal is to reach 14 (six on the shirt and eight in other movable spaces). The sponsors, together with the merchandising and the box office, are part of the circle of economic consolidation for the team. Silver is the brand that designs their uniforms and Bajaferries is the main sponsor on the jersey.
“We have educated ourselves to lose as little as possible and we have also created a model of attraction where local businessmen have felt part of the projects and begin to lighten our load. We have learned, Ciudad Guzmán has been a great teacher for us and here (in the Expansion League) it is a division where greater brand exposure is contemplated, players with higher salaries, so we are going to continue with the formula of approaching the local businessman , but today you can also reach more brands at a national level”.
The Athletic La Paz will be a young team on the circuit MX expansion with young people between 19 and 22 years old, since the majority of their squad comes from the Third Division Mazorqueros, who have just been champions in the Clausura 2022 tournament. They also kept the coach, Jaime Durán, who was a defender of clubs like Atlas , Puebla and Morelia in his stage as a professional.
Another of the club’s priorities will be the recruitment of local talent and gradually placing them in the first team, with the experience they had in Mazorqueros regarding the training of young people: “There is already a methodology model to recruit and give tracing. As long as we give them the tactical, technical and psychological content, we are going to offer them the opportunities. Here we work at the same time so that in the second year the players are already more integrated, in the first year we are going to do all the recruitment”.
After making the leap from the Third Division, where the teams are more training than business, now the directors of Atlético La Paz realize that they can go out with black numbers in a league like Expansión. Without running before walking, they prioritize consolidating in this circuit before thinking about promotion or other aspirations that are in their long-term route.
“The essence of the project is to share in order to grow, we come to continue learning and we are aware that the first year is going to be very laborious, in economic matters it is not going to be profitable, but we know that it is going to be a project that will give peace of mind the players that they are going to fulfill everything that has been put in the contract, that we are a serious project and we have come to give football this beautiful and honest face within the medium, that we want to add in a city where football professional had not existed”, concludes the president of the Athletic La Paz.
Atletico La Paz Numerals
- 40 million pesos will be its annual operating expense.
- You will receive 2 million pesos per month as a subsidy from the Expansion League.
- 40% of its budget will come from the league’s subsidy and broadcast rights revenue.
- The club has 6 sponsors at the start of Apertura 2022, aspiring to reach 14.
- 5,200 spectators fit in its stadium, Guaycura, which was remodeled in 2018.
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