The ARCO Mexican Pacific League (LAMP) has worked in the last decade to increase its audience, reach, commercial allies, renovate its stadiums and grow its income even in times of a pandemic. The negotiation of its assets as a unit and keeping up-to-date on experiences for the fans and with the brands has brought results and is the hallmark of its leaders.
Despite the ravages of the pandemic, LAMP It can boast of continuing to increase its income, since before 2018 its growth rate was around 30% per year. And despite the fact that ticket sales represent an approximate 55% of its commercial balance and that capacity was limited in the last two seasons, the arrival of new sponsors such as Arco, Hot, Totalplay and a new broadcasting agreement with Sky helped them continue to rise.
In 2009, Omar Canizales, a non-baseball actor, took over the reins of the Mexican Pacific League. His training in marketing at the Regiomontana University, as well as his experience in the commercial and marketing areas of companies such as the Cuauhtémoc brewery and the Pepsico soft drink, has been combined with the vision of the different entrepreneurs in charge of the teams of the LAMP to position it as an avant-garde league within the Mexican market, being a pioneer in digital strategies, one of the few that collectively negotiates its agreements and that in the last decade has dedicated itself to renovating its sports venues.
In an interview with The Economist, Canizales explained that it is not about discovering the black thread, but about exploring what already exists in the market and being guided by the best examples, that is why the LAMP maintains ties with the Major Leagues, which allows it to generate an exchange of information on topics such as marketing, communication or use of social networks; teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres have trained their staff.
“The actions they do and that the teams share with us help us to have a reference and then use it. Since we like sports and we are in the entertainment industry, we see what other leagues do, in basketball, baseball, football or soccer. You always have to keep an eye on the other leagues to try to tropicalize what we have to do to ours, ”Canizales said.
The LAMP It is one of the only three in Mexico (in addition to the Soccer Expansion League since 2020 and the LMB in 2021) that jointly sells its television rights; in the same way, it negotiates collectively with its global sponsors, and then distributes the income in equal amounts among its 10 teams, which allows it to balance their economic capacity. By eliminating the difference between small and large teams, you increase the competition, the spectacle and the attractiveness to invest in the league.
“We have teams that play in cities with less population but that does not mean that some like Guasave or Navojoa, who are from the smallest cities, cannot compete face to face with teams from cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara, Hermosillo or Mexicali, because they have enough resources to be able to hire the players, operate their franchises and offer a high quality show ”.
In 2021 the league launched its new agreement with Sky, which allowed it to increase its number of subscribers from 3.1 million to eight million, “and it is not only projecting us in Mexico, but it is projecting us to eight more countries.”
“The strategic alliance allows us to reach more people, but it also allows us to reach more brands because these do not necessarily have to focus on one part of the country’s territory, but rather reaches the entire country, it is much more national and we are also present in Central America and the Caribbean ”, explained the president of the circuit.
Additionally, the league implemented the Extrabase platform, one of the first developed by professional sports teams, although Canizales recognizes that this is not a channel that contributes a significant number of viewers, but is an option for those who do not have access to Sky.
In addition to this broadcast reach, before the pandemic, game goers had set an attendance record of 3.1 million for the 2019-20 regular season and currently more than five million people interact with the league through social networks.
Staying at the forefront of technology is also one of the priorities in the management of Omar Canizales. 10 years ago it began with the remodeling of its stadiums and in 2020 Totalplay became the official internet provider in the circuit venues, being the only sports league in Mexico that has an agreement of this type, which will help it carry out wifi marketing strategies.
“We are convinced that it is necessary to be mounted in the era of technology and digital, but for this it is necessary to have infrastructure. We made an agreement with Totalplay as the Wi-Fi provider for the entire LAPM so that it could provide us with a level of quality where it was getting better and better so that the stadiums were interactive, but we also made an agreement with a Top Consulting group, which is a infrastructure provider that can guarantee us that, even if they provide us with a large amount of internet gigabytes, they are sufficiently well used and distributed ”.
This internet connection, added to the data that the league has of its fans, will allow them to create an ecosystem in which the brands interact in a personalized way with the public, a measure that is expected to be consolidated during the next season.
“The objectives are to continue growing in fans, in sponsors, in assistance to the parks, continue to attract fans at an early age, repositioning baseball, all those objectives are there, the numbers part is an internal job that the presidents and I are fine-tuning. as the circumstances arise and as we are implementing the different projects, “he concluded Omar Canizales.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx