'There's gotta be a specialness': A look at how NM United goes about securing an international friendly

To the casual onlooker, nothing about the video set itself up to be exciting.

It was less than 20 seconds long. A pre-recorded message in Spanish from a nearly 60-year-old man projected onto a blank portion of the wall inside the Mexican consulate on Friday.

It still elicited an applause from those in the room. Miguel Herrera’s gist, even if simple and predictable, even for those confined to just English, hit the necessary points of gratitude and excitement.

“I still got to pinch myself that El Piojo is going to be in Albuquerque,” New Mexico United President Ron Patel said, referring to Herrera’s nickname which translates to louse.

Herrera, who coached the Mexican national team from 2013-15, including in the 2014 World Cup, as well as the Costa Rican national squad last year, will be in town with his current club — Atlante FC — for an international friendly at 7:25 p.m. Wednesday at Isotopes Park.

It will be the fifth such match United has hosted since its founding in 2018.

Welsh club Cardiff City, then in the second-tier English Championship, made an appearance in 2019. English side Sunderland AFC, which also then played in the Championship, came in 2023. The last two seasons have featured FC Juarez, which plays in Liga MX, Mexico’s top league.

“There’s gotta be a specialness to it,” Patel said. “… It has to be the right opponent to tell the right story, to have the right event that is a cultural exchange. … Mexican teams do very well here. They draw a lot of attention. If you get a team from a big European league, that can draw a lot of attention, too.”

Atlante certainly fits those narratives.

Along with Herrera, Atlante is a club with history and a notable supporter following. It was founded 110 years ago. It is based in Mexico City, playing its home matches at the famed Estadio Azteca. And this season, it is making a return to Liga MX after acquiring the rights of Mazatlán, which folded in April. The last 12 years, Atlante played in the country’s second flight.

But while notable story lines to draw fans’ interest with the hope to ultimately put them in seats is one of the factors for such contests, it’s hardly the only one that determines which clubs United wants to bring to Albuquerque. Unsurprisingly, logistics, timing and money are just as important.

“It’s a lot to try to figure out the right team that will come to the market, that’s going to attract fans, excite fans,” Patel said. “But also a team that’s going to be a challenge. … We say no a lot.”

Patel politely declined to specify which clubs have been turned down out of professional courtesy. A fourth-division team from Portugal has expressed interest in the past. Same with a lower-level club from Uruguay.

United often gets pitched on an international friendly either once a week or every two weeks during the season, Patel said. That number can jump to as many as five per week from January until March. Discussions usually pick up in earnest around United’s current international friendly. Patel again politely declined to say which foreign clubs United has had discussions with.

But the United president will usually weigh the club’s options by going through his Rolodex of contacts.

“A digital Rolodex now,” Patel corrected with a grin.

Oftentimes, that means talking to an agent or another soccer administrator.

Jaime Casas, an agent based in Barcelona, Spain, and his company Proximma Sports, a global sports agency that specializes in organizing preseason tours and friendlies, international club sponsorships and even designing competition trophies, helped set up the match with Atlante.

Nothing, however, is a done deal until signatures are on the page. And sometimes, agreements fall through.

“Making sure that contract is signed is the most strenuous part,” Patel said. “The second most is organizing the logistics. You’ve got people who have never been here before and they don’t know what to expect with the food, the hotels, with transportation, and we want to make sure they have a great experience.”

Part of those logistics is figuring out when any potential friendly can take place. There are limitations.

Isotopes Park hosts 75 baseball games each season. And as a secondary tenant, NM United must follow certain rules. Matches can’t take place 48 hours before or after the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate plays.

It tends to make things challenging.

United has sought its own stadium since its founding, but its first two attempts to have one built were either voted down overwhelmingly by the public or tied up in lawsuits. A third option, one at the state fairgrounds, is in an early talks phase.

Foreign clubs are also often in their preseason, months after United starts prepping for its own schedule, meaning they’ll only play in a certain window. United has to worry about that, too. Any friendly has to fit within its own slate between regular-season USL Championship matches, the U.S. Open Cup and USL Cup.

“We’ve spoken to some of the biggest clubs in the world,” Patel said. “It just doesn’t always make sense with the fee that they command to come into Isotopes Park on a Wednesday when the economics aren’t in our favor when we rent the stadium. When we own our own stadium, we have a lot more economics in our favor, so we can take a bigger risk on who we want to bring in.”

Money matters. It always has and always will.

Patel did not say what the exact fees different clubs command, but offered that it’s usually “a lot of money.”

“If you’re familiar at all with the concert promotion world, it’s the same as that,” Patel said. “You got to pay Tim McGraw a lot of money to come and do a show, and (you) hope that you sell enough tickets to offset what you paid him. Same thing. These teams require a lot of money to get here and the bigger the team, the more expensive the fee.”

It’s part of the reason Atlante FC will be the international friendly this season. United is anticipating it will draw and turn into an event. Even for that casual onlooker, who just might want to see something different.

There’s always a method to which club comes into Albuquerque. It’s just a matter of getting everything to fit into place.

“We look at this as a gift to the fans,” Patel said. “You get to see something you never get to see. … There is a specialness to this. The fans expect one every year and we don’t want to let our fans down.”

David Glovach covers New Mexico United and other sports for the Journal. Reach him at dglovach@abqjournal.com or via X @DavidGlovach.

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