The first steps
Horacio de la Vega, executive president of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB) since 2019, he is a sports promoter. Upon taking office, he set out to take off in the industry, even scoring a home run.
De la Vega knows the sector well. He represented Mexico at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in the modern pentathlon competition. He then took over the commercial direction of the 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games. He was also the general director of Sports in Mexico City during the administration of Miguel Ángel Mancera.
Without knowing anything about baseball, the director had a meeting with the LMB assembly, made up of the owners of the league teams, and told them: “If you think that baseball can be seen, you are wrong.” Since then, his mission has been to improve the reach of the sport and, at the same time, make it a profitable business for everyone involved.
The big step was taken in 2020. With the stadiums closed and the summer circuit canceled due to the pandemic, De la Vega began with the operational changes and began to centralize content production, with a focus on television broadcasts, to unify matches and sell the rights to television stations, to which they deliver a product ready to be broadcast, reducing post-production costs.
Added to this are 17,000 pieces of video that are generated in each game to highlight the best play and other outstanding moments, which, in addition to small screens, are shared on digital platforms and the social networks of each team.
“Saint that is not seen is not adored, that is why we standardized the production standard in all the parties to be able to sell the television rights and now we have agreements with 24 television stations nationwide and 11 state-owned,” he explains, without disclosing the amount. that has been generated by each of the trade agreements.
Since then, it is common to see the broadcast of baseball league games on ESPN, TDN, Televisa, TV Azteca, Channel 11, Claro and on platforms such as Star+ or Amazon Prime, when before there were only agreements for the Red Devils. and the Sultans of Monterrey.
However, now the challenge is to cut the time of the summer circuit matches to transform them into a product that is easier to maintain on television. To do this, they have begun by reducing the innings from nine to seven, and some measures are being evaluated, such as standardizing the maximum time a pitcher has to throw a ball.
Now, The Mexican league is seen in 20 countries and on television It has a reach of 66 million viewers accumulated during the last year, which means a growth of 18% in its annual comparison, according to the data shared by the manager. For De la Vega, this caused sponsorships to see baseball teams in the country with new eyes.
In addition to television rights, the doors have been opened to grow the industry, from stadium tickets, food and beverages sold there, to the revenue generated in the venue stores and marketed from team keychains, jerseys or jackets.
The expansion of the league
The results are tangible. The league’s income went from between 15 and 20 million pesos in 2019 to a turnover of 340 million pesos in 2021, even with the passage of covid-19 and the economic crisis, of which the consequences are still being felt. “The league is already self-sufficient, it never had been, and until 2021 the subsidy from the teams was no longer required to survive,” reveals De la Vega.
The manager has also led the negotiations with sponsors and alliances for the sale of merchandise, which, for him, means a greater presence and strength of the league. Among these alliances, that of New Era stands out, which markets the caps of all the teams. The brand sells between 150,000 and 180,000 caps a season, De La Vega says. The prices are around 800 pesos and the different models are found on the sales floors of their stores and other specialized ones.