Viva Mexico!

On Wednesday, June 4th the Mexican National Team hosted Argentina in a friendly international football (soccer) match at Qualcomm Stadium. How is it that Mexico can "host" a game on American soil? Of the 68,000+ in attendance, I'd say 65,000 were loyal fans of Mexico. Red, white, and green blanketed both the lower stands and upper deck. I had witnessed football crowds of this magnitude bef0re (90,000+ for a Real Madrid Champion's League match at Santiago Bernabeu), but in the United States? This was not Italy-Brazil in the 1994 World Cup Final. It was a friendly match that meant nothing more than pure pride. With the recent culmination of the Champion's League, both sides were able to stack their squads. But Messi, Aguero, Julio Cruz, and Maxi Rodriguez proved too much for Mexico as Argentina coasted to an emphatic 4-1 victory, much to the dismay of the raucous crowd.

So how was the SDSU Sports MBA program involved? Several students of SMBA '09 including myself assisted Soccer United Marketing (SUM) with running the event. SUM is the North American soccer organization that owns the rights to the MLS, USSF and all Mexican National Team games played in the United States. CEO Don Garber is also the Commissioner of the MLS. So, to quote Ron Burgandy, SUM is kind of a big deal.

The day before the match, we helped the crew set up Futbol Fiesta, a massive outdoor marketing operation that takes place before every game. Major sponsors of the event such as McDonald's, Home Depot, AT&T and Budweiser set up stages and platforms in the parking lot to perform various promotional activities for the fans. Two 45-minute halves don't leave much room for television advertising so this is an interactive way for corporations to market their products and expose their company's services directly to consumers. We spent the late afternoon placing programs on seats throughout the stadium, not the most glamorous job but somebody's got to do it.

On game day, the eight of us spent our time managing Futbol Fiesta for the corporate sponsors and vendors before being summoned into the stadium for various operational and PR responsibilities. Juan Carlos assisted the main videographer, Judith led a Budweiser parade around the stadium while Drew and I escorted retired Mexican National players to their suites prior to kickoff. A select few of the SMBAers got to watch the entire 2nd half on the field right behind the photographers. Drew and I kept getting pelted with cups and programs from rowdy Mexico fans aiming for the Argentinian keeper. For someone who loves the game of football as much as I do, it was an awesome experience.

The day ended with a post-game celebration at Seau's (that's former Charger Junior Seau's restaurant) with the entire SUM staff who put on the event. It was a long day that ended with food, drinks, and fun stories to tell.

Brendan Wells
SMBA '09