Cheaper valuations: Toluca players celebrate after winning Liga MX on Dec 15. Liga MX’s Arriola says the Mexican league is highly attractive to American investors, with 10 more investment funds looking to buy teams. — Reuters
MEXICO CITY: A syndicate including General Atlantic and a subsidiary of New England Patriots owner Kraft Group is making a US$490mil investment in Mexican soccer ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The group agreed to buy a 49% stake in Ollamani Group, which owns Club America, one of Mexico’s biggest soccer teams, as well as the 88,000-seat Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, where the sport’s premier tournament will kick off, the companies announced in a joint statement. The new entity will be known as Grupo Aguilas.
Telecom and broadcasting giant Televisa Group set up Ollamani in February 2024 to separate its non-media related assets like Club America and the stadium, and focus solely on its core businesses.
Ollamani will retain the remaining 51% stake of Grupo Aguilas and Televisa Chairman Emilio Azcarraga Jean will become its executive president.
Kraft Analytics Group, the subsidiary of billionaire Robert Kraft’s holding company, focuses on data management and consulting for live events and sports. Its parent company has owned the New England Patriots since 1994 and related assets including Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.
Club America, which Televisa acquired in 1959, is Mexico’s top performing team with over 40 domestic and international titles and a large fan base in its home country and the United States.
It’s also listed on the Mexican stock exchange, making it one of the few publicly traded soccer clubs alongside European giants like Manchester United and Juventus.
The iconic Azteca Stadium – now called Estadio Banorte after the financial group bought naming rights – is undergoing a US$106mil renovation.
Otherwise, Ollamani owns a gaming division that operates 18 casinos while their publishing business includes titles such as weekly entertainment magazine TVyNovelas.
Mexico’s soccer market is ripe for investment since the owners board of national soccer league agreed that no single group can own more than one team in Liga MX.
Three business groups – including one owned by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s Grupo Salinas – currently own multiple teams and will need to sell to avoid penalties.
“We could really move forward at ending multi-propriety with fresh foreign investment,” Mikel Arriola, president of Mexico soccer league Liga MX, said in an interview in November.
“Today the Mexican league is extremely attractive for American investors.”
Buying into Mexican teams is cheaper than investing in a new Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise, with the upside of already having a fan base on both sides of the border.
Charlotte Football Club and San Diego FC, two of the newest names in MLS, cost US$325mil and US$500mil, respectively, according to the league’s records.
And the price tag for a first division team in one of Europe’s top leagues goes well over US$1bil.
Arriola also said that the appetite for Mexican teams will grow as the sport gains traction beyond its core Hispanic fans in the United States and the 2026 World Cup euphoria lingers long after the tournament.
“We have 10 American investment funds looking for teams in Mexico,” he said at the time. “To have this amount of purchases in 2025 is huge.”
Mexican soccer has attracted millions of dollars in recent years from investors taking a chance on the country’s obsession with the sport.
In 2021, Hollywood star Eva Longoria and a group of American investors including Apollo Sports Capital bought 50% of Club Necaxa, one of the country’s oldest teams. The club currently features in a television series produced by FX.
Club Queretaro was fully acquired this year for US$120mil by Innovatio Capital, an Atlanta-based investment firm.
Its CEO Marc Spiegel became the first foreign owner of a top Mexican division soccer team since the league’s establishment 82 years ago.
Atlas FC is one of two other clubs expected to be sold to US investors in the upcoming months. — Bloomberg
