Tri Femenil goes for impulse to its brand in the United States

The Mexican women’s soccer team enters a new business model from 2023: starting its own Mex Tour (specifically called MexTour W), a tour of friendly matches in stadiums in the United States that has been worked on by its men’s counterpart since 2002 with an estimated income of 10 million dollars annually.

Officially, the MexTour W will begin with the match between the Tri Femenil and the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday, April 8 at the SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, with a capacity for 21,210 spectators. The next engagement will be on Tuesday the 11th against the Houston Dash at the Shell Energy stadium in Houston, Texas, with a capacity for 22,039.

These will not be the first times that the team has visited the United States, since between 2021 and 2022 they played four friendlies there, with a balance of three defeats (two against the local team and one against New Zealand) and one victory (against Angel City FC from American league). Adding the comparisons of the MexTour W will be six visits to that country in a period of 22 months (from July 2021 to April 2023).

“I want to see you in Houston, see you soon!” wrote a fan on the Tri Femenil’s official Twitter account two days before her visit to the Chicago Red Stars. The last game of the Mexican women’s team in the United States (last September) received 17,721 fans at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, whose maximum capacity is 22,000, that is, it received 80% capacity.

For the matches of the first MexTour W, the maximum capacity to be achieved is 43,249 fans and a potential economic benefit of 2.91 million dollars just for box office, taking into account that tickets range from 35 to 100 dollars.

One of the attractions for these matches was the call for players who are active outside the Women’s MX League by the coach, Pedro López, for which they are practically the best exponents, such as the captain Kenti Robles, of Real Madrid; the goalkeeper Emily Alvarado, from the Stade de Reims; and attacker María Sánchez, from the Houston Dash, who join names of figures such as Charlyn Corral (Pachuca), Carolina Jaramillo (Chivas) and Jacqueline Ovalle (Tigres).

The incursion of the Mexican women’s team in the Mex Tour was agreed since May 2022 between the Mexican Soccer Federation (FMF) and Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the agency that has directed the men’s Tri matches in the United States since 2002. It deals with a link that came into force in January 2023 and will be valid for six years.

“The following years will be very important for our women’s team in terms of games and big games in the United States. Undoubtedly, this is something that will grow in the future”, mentioned at that time Yon De Luisa, former president of the FMF, in addition to noting that in the neighboring country there are 60 million fans of the Mexican team.

At that time, De Luisa also confirmed that the sponsors in the United States and the tours organized by SUM generate income that represents up to a third of the FMF’s annual budget, so the incursion of women’s parties is one more asset in terms of profit. Economic: “It’s really important to play in the United States against great opponents, to be in touch with our fan base, but also to have that income.”

The Tri Femenil is undergoing a process of sports reconstruction after its deplorable performance in the 2022 W Concacaf Championship, in which it was in last place in its group (despite playing at home, in Monterrey) and missing the possibility of attending both the World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

That role led to the departure of Mónica Vergara as coach and led to the arrival of the Spanish Pedro López, who won the Revelations Cup held in León, Guanajuato, in February of this year and will live only his second commitment at the helm of the Tri Femenil in the first Mex Tour W during the first half of April.