BBVA Bancomer Stadium, "the shiny new home" of Liga MX side Club Monterrey opening Aug. 2, "sets the bar much higher for sports development in Mexico," according to Don Muret of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The stadium, at a cost of $200M, "is the most expensive ever built in Mexico." Designed by Populous, it has 324 suites and 4,500 club seats, "among the highest number of premium seats in all of Latin America." Its technological amenities, common at NFL facilities and on a smaller scale at Major League Soccer stadiums, "are largely absent from Mexican soccer venues." They include two HD video screens, ribbon boards, 900 TV monitors, a state-of-the-art sound system, full Wi-Fi "and a distributed antenna system to boost cellphone coverage." David Lizarraga, a senior associate with Populous, said the stadium "will basically revolutionize the way people perceive and experience a soccer match in Mexico and Latin America." Femsa, "the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola products," owns the football club that plays in Liga MX. Femsa "is privately financing stadium construction, supported by revenue streams such as premium seat sales and naming rights, similar to the traditional funding sources for North American sports facilities." The terms of the BBVA Bancomer naming-rights deal "have not been made public." CSL Int'l President Bill Rhoda said that the move to a new stadium "includes a shift in the marketing strategy for selling premium seats." Most older football stadiums in Latin America, such as Mexico City’s 95,500-seat Azteca Stadium, have limited premium spaces typically "sold for life," which denies the venue consistent revenue streams. For BBVA Bancomer Stadium, the challenge for CSL "was to help change the way of thinking for effectively marketing premium products in Mexico." Instead of the lifetime agreements, the team "attached 15-year agreements for suites and club seats and sold out of all inventory." The stadium’s concessionaire is Eurest Services, part of Compass Group. Separately, an independent operator "will run a 170-seat restaurant in the stadium’s south end that will be open year-round" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/8 issue).
