Expansion League: Receive fish and learn to fish
The Expansion League, which was already very vulnerable financially, worsened its financial situation with the pandemic. The FMF , as the parent responsible for each of the categories (children) that comprise it, must help each one when they are in trouble. In this case, with the Expansion League, he opted for the easiest decision to execute, but more complicated to sustain: the subsidy.
In exchange for eliminating promotion and relegation in the Maximum Category, the FMF transfers a subsidy of 2 million pesos to each of the 12 teams in the Expansion League (formerly called Ascenso MX), such that at the end of the soccer year, these will have received 20 million each (240 million pesos in total, around 12 million USD).
Good for the FMF that helps the weaker teams right? Well, things start badly there, since this amount comes from the fines that are charged to the 3 worst teams in the First Division.
How important are those 120 million pesos operationally speaking for the Ascent teams?
Alan Calleja, director of Club León , who until before the elimination of Ascenso worked as director of Mineros de Zacatecas, pointed out that said financial support represents between 60 and up to 70% of the cost of operating the teams in the category.
wow! If that's true, then 3 first division teams are pretty much holding the Expansion League survival. So what guarantees that once the fine system is lifted, Expansion League teams will be able to be sustainable on their own?
Alan Calleja mentions that: “Regardless of whether the Promotion opens in the third year, it is contemplated that this subsidy exists for five years: Barely one goes, there is enough time left for the teams, with economic control, to manage themselves in a good way, their brand sports, its entry in sponsorships is much higher.
Everything is planned so that in five years, when this subsidy is removed, the teams are strengthened, have an identity in their place and are ready for the First Division.
Also, with so many young Mexicans in each team, it sounds very logical that, as in the case of Diego de Buen and Memo Martínez, a higher income prevails in the clubs from the sale of players , ”Calleja explained.
The director of León pointed out that in order to continue giving financial support to the Expansion teams for the entire five years, the continuity of the millionaire fines is an issue that will be evaluated as of the second year, it should be noted that, although there is still no nothing confirmed, it is a proposal on the table that after the first three years promotion returns but that there is still no relegation , so it is possible that the last three teams in the percentage table continue to be financially penalized.
Despite the impact that the Expansion League has had on the training of young people due to the number of debuts it has allowed, Javier Salinas pointed out that they have not been able to meet the professionalization objectives and that, with the exception of Cimarrones and Dorados, who already had a previous marketing job, this one has suffered a setback .
“The idea that these three years have is to strengthen as a brand, as entertainment companies, but that has not happened. I have seen practically none of the 12 teams that are working on professionalizing their structures”.
Great doubts prevail about the health and financial future of the Expansion League teams: the reality is that they had better accelerate the appreciation of their sports brand, attract more and better sponsorships, generate income from the sale of players and perhaps even get something more for the right to broadcast their matches.
They have 4 years left to accelerate the transformation of these sources of income so that they at least replace the current subsidy of the current 120 million pesos. How? as they can What is a fact is that not even the First Division teams have been able to do it, such that in order to pay the fine they will have to sacrifice the most important asset of a professional football team, its players.
