Mexico City – Robinson Canó spent 17 seasons playing major leagues in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but feels something special in his recent period with the Red Devils of the Mexican Baseball League.
He is not alone.
The Summer League of Mexico will open its 100th season on Thursday with the aim of maintaining impressive growth in the assistance that began after the surprise race of the Mexican national team In 2023 World Baseball Classic And now you are overcoming some First Division football clubs.
After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after the national team of Mexico was eliminated in the first round in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, He directed his attention to baseball And many of them seem to have stayed in the long term.
“We constantly strive for growth and this season will not be different,” said the president of the League, Horacio de la Vega, to The Associated Press. “Our growth has to do with the fact that we are not selling only baseball, but an experience.”
In Mexico City, the “baseball experience” occurs at the Alfredo Helu Helu stadium of $ 160 million, a place that opened in March 2019 and sets 20,000.
Although the stadium is small compared to MLB standards, Carnival’s atmosphere stands out.
“This is a special city, where fans reach the climate of each game, it is day or night,” Canó told the AP. “As a player, it is a great motivation to see the park full of fans that support baseball.”
The 42-year-old Dominican, who appeared in eight All-Star games, played in the United States for five franchises, including the New York Yankees. He was a key player to take Red Diachos to the championship last season and recently agreed to return for a second.
Completer of his career, Canó has played for oriental stars of the Dominican Republic and participated in several Caribbean series, a team tournament played every year in different countries of Mexico and Central America.
“The atmosphere in Mexico resembles the Caribbean series, but there you are playing for your country and is a short tournament,” Cano said. “Here, it is a long season and yet fans are still there every night.”
Season of the Red Devils exceeded the average assistance in the league with 11,694, followed by Tijuana bulls (11,354) and Sultans of Monterrey (9,092).
Pachuca Soccer Clubs (10,713), Santos Torreon (9,421), Mazatlan (9,522) and Ciudad Juárez (8,980) have worse assistance despite playing in larger stadiums. The team with the best assistance in the Mexican Soccer League is Monterrey with 43,544.
“We have a large group of owners even though they are rivals in the countryside. They function as allies and share all kinds of things, from how to clean baths, how to have better meal courtyards and even sell beer,” said De la Vega.
Mexico City has three football stadiums: Sports City, University Olympic and Azteca, but none of them have large facilities. There are no elevators, mechanical stairs or even food courtyards. Azteca is currently closed by renovations and could have them for the 2026 World Cup.
The same happens in most other MX League stadiums. The most friendly places with fans are BBVA stadium in Monterrey and the Akron in Guadalajara. Both were chosen to organize games in the next World Cup.
“We have been constantly growing and being a special season, we aim to a record of 5 million fans in total assistance,” said De la Vega.
After the World Baseball Classic in 2023, 4,734 million fans established the league assistance record for a season. Last year, the number fell, but only for 93,000 fans.
And fans are also becoming younger. According to Othon Díaz, the president of Red Devils, nine years ago, 53% of team fans had 55 years or more and now 74% of them are under 45 years old. In addition, they averaged 3,000 fans per game and is now up to 11,000.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
