2015 albuquerque sol soccer presentation deck
TRANSCRIPT
“REINVENTING ABQ, ONE GOAL AT A TIME…”
Our vision is to unite and
elevate.
Unite and elevate New Mexico
through the world’s
beautiful game:
SOCCER/FUTBOL.
The Albuquerque Sol
represent
people from all
backgrounds and
communities, joining
together for
#SolRising.
The Sol is an New Mexico S Corporation comprised of two
partners and staff each with unique strengths, relationships and
backgrounds who share a deep passion to the sport of soccer.
We Demonstrate that soccer is a highly desirable and beneficial
endeavor in New Mexico, a tremendous business opportunity for
ownership, affiliated stakeholders, sponsors, fans, a multi-
cultural tourism attraction for our market, and a unique source
of pride and excitement for our community.
Our 2015 events include nine home matches in ABQ, one in Taos and
one in Santa Fe to establish a statewide presence. We host events
year round including tournaments, watch parties, youth camps,
and social outings.
The Sol play its matches at St. Pius X High School, an
Albuquerque landmark.
We aspire to rise in the hierarchy of American soccer to the
professional level of USL and/or MLS and have grand designs
for a soccer stadium and field complex.
Elevate Albuquerque Sol, currently a USL PDL franchise, into a
high profile, financially successful, community responsible,
professional club capable of hosting 20,000+ fans per game.
Establish a property within our city that offers the highest
quality fields, training facilities, office space to operate a
professional front office that focuses on the business of soccer
365 day per year.
Build a large, loyal and passionate fan base for the Sol that
translates into strong attendance, corporate and civic
partnership, community pride, and promote Albuquerque and its
beauty to the entire world.
Create a broadcast network in television, radio and online
streaming to build vertical channels for our content year round.
Launch other events and products including international
matches, professional friendlies, World Cup viewing parties,
youth development initiatives, tournaments and other events.
Demonstrate a long term viability for the sport through sound
business practices, fiscal responsibility, effective planning, and
long-term vision.
The Albuquerque Sol is a New Mexico corporation and led
by two dynamic and uniquely capable characters with
unique strengths, experience, local, national and
international relationships and a supreme, over-arching
love of soccer:
Ron Patel became an entrepreneur by forming "Just Dine In“, a
high end restaurant food delivery service (Renamed Delivered
Dish) in 2006. the company now services 7 metropolitan areas in
Oregon, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas.
During that time, Ron served for 4 years as President of the
Restaurant Marketing & Delivery Association.
Ron also serves as partnership chair of the Young Professionals
of Albuquerque and as a committee member for the march of
dimes, the ALS Association along with chairing the Albuquerque
Sol Foundation.
Ron recently authored the book “That’s when it hit Me: How to
take an idea from a cocktail napkin into reality”. He is recently
engaged to the love of his life, Isabel. His favorite team outside of
the sol is Liverpool FC.
Larry “Lencho” Espinoza is a native New Mexican from the
Martinez Town neighborhood in Albuquerque. He attended St.
Charles Borromeo Elementary School, St. Pius X High School,
and several years at the University of New Mexico. Lencho
credits his love of community to his experiences in a small
school environment during his formative years.
After several years in the restaurant management business,
Lencho discovered the mortgage business in 2001 where he
enjoyed immediate success helping people realize their dream
of home ownership. As the General Manager for the
Albuquerque Sol, Lencho brings a great deal of knowledge
from both soccer and business. He has a deep affinity for
family, community, relationships and the game.
He sits on the board of The Montessori Elementary School and
aiba (aka keep it querque). Lencho’s favorite activities include:
spending quality time with his daughter Emma, playing soccer,
photography, and cooking.
Soccer is the #1 Participation Sport with over 20,500 Youth
players, 7,500 Adult players in New Mexico alone with over
3,000,000 youth players in the United States
Rabid following: 2014 World Cup had over 27.5 million
viewers
MLS, now 22 teams, is set to be 28 teams by 2020
MLS is #3 in average attendance of all US sports
ESPN/Fox/Univision just invested $75 Million in MLS
broadcasts
USL, now 24 teams, will be 40 teams by 2020
NBC’s top 10 English premier league markets: DC, NY, Phil,
Bos, Miami, Prov, Columbus, ALBUQUERQUE, Dallas…
Albuquerque is a huge soccer culture epicenter…
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
MLS NASCAR NHL NBA MLB NFL
Avid Fan
Casual
*Source: Sports
Business Journal
Sponsor
Consumption
Survey (December
2011)
9th
out of 65 PDL teams in attendance (1,069)
League runner up for USL PDL Rookie Franchise Award
Promoted two players to professional contracts
Raised over $5,000 for eight local non-profits
Established direct relationship with Colorado Rapids of MLS
Hosted Colombian superstar Carlos Valderrama During 2014
legends cup
Carried the momentum with the City of Albuquerque city
council to approve an 81 acre soccer/baseball complex and
stadium near APS Football stadium on the west side with main
field
Entertained multiple groups interested in a full professional
team in USL and/or MLS
League founded in 1995 www.uslpdl.com
PDL is the top flight of amateur soccer
The majority of athletes come from top NCAA college
programs including our own UNM Lobos.
70% of MLS draftees play in PDL
Regular season matches are played from May – July
with the playoffs and championship concluding in
august.
Sixty-five teams will compete for the championship
across north America
Nineteen teams annually are invited into the
prestigious Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Competition
Home games are played at St. Pius X High School
In 2015, we will play 9 matches in ABQ, 1 in Taos and 1
in Santa Fe.
• Over 5,934 likes
after 1st
season!
• 10,000 by July, 2015
• 20,000 by July, 2016
• 100,000 by 2018
• gear
• Events
• celebrity
• Watch parties
• Causes
“The difference between who we are and
who we want to be is What We Do.”
-Larry Espinoza
Founder of ABQ Sol Foundation
The Sol are developing high quality,
long term relationships and ultimately,
exclusive, comprehensive, promotional
strategies that engage multiple
platforms, assets, ideas and initiatives
to connect our partners to the passion
and loyalty of the rabid new mexico
soccer fan base.
Sat. May 16th
vs. Midland Odessa
Sat. May 28th
vs. Brigham Young University
Mon. June 1st
vs. Las Vegas Mobsters
Sat. June 6th
vs. FC Tucson
Thurs. June 18th
vs. Laredo Heat
Thurs. July 9th
vs. Real Colorado
Sat. July 11th
vs. Real Colorado
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