Guadalajara has put his name at the top of the sport over the past year with Checo Pérez, ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, the Atlas club and is also looking for it in baseball with the charros of Jalisco. The ninth team of Guadalajara managed to qualify for the 2022 Mexican Pacific League Final Series and did so with the pressure of its new owners, the González Íñigo family, trying to recreate the experience gained in their clubhouse businesses. implement.
This family, owner of the Sesajal agro-industrial emporium, which has commitments in 25 countries, is living its first year at the head of the administration of Charros de Jalisco, where they own 89.5% ownership. Their descent is imbued with baseball with roots from Hermosillo, Sonora, and, in addition to their business vision, they have also tried to inject their vision as fans to present a competitive and profitable product. The remaining 10.5% is distributed among the Valenzuela Cadena, Plasencia and Gómez Flores families.
“We have big projects in mind. At the end of the season we are going to invest in strategic planning exercises, we are going to appoint external agents (advisers) to put together a plan of how and where we want to see Charros in a three to five year plan, not anymore because the world is so changeable that we will waste efforts. The reference is to see what the valuations of the soccer and baseball teams in Mexico are, which are currently between eight or 10 times more (refer to the value of a soccer team versus a baseball team), a dream is that five years the valuations are reduced to five to one “, explains Íñigo González Covarrubias, executive president of Charros de Jalisco, in an interview with El Economista.
The González Íñigos stepped in as partners at the invitation of the government of the state of Jalisco, following the problems Charros had under the previous leaders, led by Salvador Quirarte, Armando Navarro and nine other partners who owned 73% of the shares in in addition to a complaint for handling 73 million pesos between 2018 and 2019.
The new majority partners officially entered on the evening of October 5, 2021, when the opening match of the 2021-’22 season was played. In just over three months, they have managed to get the team to their third final since returning to the Mexican Pacific League in 2014, on their current roster with elements such as Roberto Osuna, Japhet Amador and José Aguilar.
He explains that the franchise is coming out of two difficult economic years due to the pandemic, to the extent that the partners had to put their own money into operations in the last season before the arrival of his family. Currently, the financial forecasts are different.
“This year it can be profitable, we are between 60 and 70% of what we projected, but it is incredible because compared to other sports, this club does not have to put money into its industry, only in the initial investment and we believe that we will repair it in four or five years. We do not live off of this, but as businessmen we do not intend to put it in, we believe that it can give us great satisfaction, that it is an interesting business for our group because the working capital is virtually zero, we it does not have to put resources into it to work, the same season we give those resources.
Los Charros has a long history of baseball, founded in 1949 and won two titles (1967 and 1971) in the summer league. Therefore, for the González Íñigo family, the bet to buy the team “for the highest number of a Mexican baseball team (they did not specify how many for confidentiality reasons)” has a long-term vision in which they intend to do business exploit to other limits and other profitability variables.
“We boarded a moving locomotive. We respect the path this locomotive goes, we understand what it does, seeing what the variables are and now the best is coming, we are convinced that part of what we paid for this club is because there is a brand behind it with which there is much to do. We have the square, the city and the sleeping supporters (referring to the fact that it is not as exploited in baseball as in football) ”, emphasizes the executive president of the Guadalajara club.
The Guadalajara Institution also has business projection internally and externally. In the first category, they are planning merchandise stores at international airports such as Los Angeles and Chicago, as the González Íñigo family has just received all of the club’s trademark rights in order to exploit them without legal revolt. They also say they plan to create player trade ties with international leagues in the United States, Colombia, Japan, China and South Korea.
Externally, the vision is to work with the other nine teams and with the LMP in general to create an expansion of teams in border cities in the southern United States and others in the Mexican Pacific.
– How would you describe this first year of your management at the head of Charros?
“I would describe it as a rough diamond because of everything that still needs to be done. It was a very pleasant experience, it brought us a good balance and this is just the beginning, Charros already generates a whole agenda in the family and it generates a lot of emotion for us ”, says Íñigo González Covarrubias.
Jalisco finished as the third best team of the season with a winning percentage of .537, behind Mayos de Navojoa (.588) and Algodoneros de Guasave (.544). To reach the final, he left out other historical franchises such as Águilas de Mexicali and Sultanes de Monterrey. Within the team, the board was in charge of making two psychologists available on the roster, an innovation that paid off because at least 10 players attended sessions.
“When we make decisions, we think like fans, what bothered us and what we liked, that is the philosophy we had. We are looking for how to translate the perspective of the fan who is going to the park into professional and in-depth decisions, the players are exceptional athletes and people, we work that human amalgam professionally, not paternalistically, with knowledge. It is a business vision, if something fails you, you must have a replacement immediately, we are always ready to make these decisions “, adds Juan Carlos González Íñigo, advisor to the Charros presidency.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx