Club Necaxa, MLB in CDMX

Which Major League Baseball teams played in Mexico City this weekend? Which Mexican star footballer might move from Europe to the US? Stay up to date with sports news in Mexico this weekend with this overview.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buy a stake in the Mexican soccer team

US-based actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have received much publicity for purchasing a low-level professional football team in Wales and attempting to have it promoted to the third tier of English football.

Their venture even spawned a hit TV docu-series on FX entitled ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, winner of multiple Emmy Awards.

Now that the two celebrities have purchased a stake in Mexico’s Club Necaxa, will a series titled ‘Welcome to Aguascalientes’ be in the offing?

Probably not.

Club Necaxa already plays in Mexico’s top professional league, Liga MX, and while it can be considered an underdog – three titles in 78 years, none since 1998 – it doesn’t offer the same drama as a beloved small town. team that wants to grow from the fourth division.

Wrexham has a population of 135,000 and a football stadium that has been hosting matches for 147 years – while the town of Aguascalientes has a population of 950,000 and the Victoria Stadium, considered the first modern stadium in Mexico when it opened in 2003.

News of Reynolds and McElhenney’s purchase of Necaxa first came from Variety, which noted that while the size of the stake is “unclear,” it is a “minority stake” of “significant” size.

Reynolds, 47, has starred in a string of films, including the highly successful action comedy “Deadpool” in 2016, and he was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010. McElhenney, also 47, is known for his work on the TV comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Founded in 1923, Club Necaxa also counts actress Eva Longoria among its investor-owners. NX Football USA – a group that includes Longoria, Major League Baseball star Justin Verlander, model Kate Upton and NFL player Odell Beckham Jr. belongs – has owned approximately 50% of the team since 2021.

Reynolds and McElhenney and the other owners will work to improve Club Necaxa’s reputation and raise its profile in a league dominated by popular teams such as Club América and Cruz Azul in Mexico City, Chivas de Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tigres UANL from Monterrey.

Liga MX plays two seasons each calendar year, and one of them has just ended. Necaxa (pronounced ne-helmsman-suh) finished in a tie for eighth place with 7 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses – good enough to qualify for the play-in round of the play-offs. Necaxa plays against Querétaro on Thursday.

Necaxa’s 2020s record of 36 wins, 29 draws and 74 losses included two last places and one penultimate.

According to Transfermarkt.com, however, the value of the franchise is $34.3 million Sportico.com places its value “in the mid to low range of $200 million.”

Major League Baseball back in CDMX

The Houston Astros won two games against the Colorado Rockies at Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium in the MLB World Tour: Mexico City Series.

The Astros won 12-4 on Saturday before a crowd of 19,934 and 8-2 on Sunday with 19,841 fans.

The 5-year-old ballpark, home of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos of the Mexican League (LMB), has a capacity of 20,062.

The Astros entered the series on a five-game losing streak and were off to their worst start since 1969 with a 7-19 record. But playing at high altitude allowed them to hit six home runs in the series, including two by Kyle Tucker and Cuban-born Yordan Álvarez.

The struggling Rockies, who hit just one home run, have now lost eleven of their last fourteen games.

The stadium is 2,239 meters (7,349 feet) above sea level, more than 2,000 feet higher than the MLB’s highest stadium, Coors Field in Denver. Hit balls travel further in a higher atmosphere with less air resistance.

When Major League Baseball made its success debut last year in Mexico City, the San Diego Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 16-11 in an 11-home run game.

In late March, the New York Yankees played Diablos Rojos in a pair of exhibition games at Harp Helú Stadium. Mexico City won 4-3, 2-0, even though the Yankees left most of their star players in Florida for spring training.

The Astros seemed to benefit from the crowd’s support in Mexico City. Although the Rockies were designated as the home team, many fans wore Astros colors.

“We didn’t feel like the visiting team,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “There was enormous passion and energy in the stadium and it really felt like home.”

Baseball in Querétaro and San Diego FC courts Hirving Lozano

Baseball fans in Querétaro are in an uproar: their city has an expansion team in the LMB (Liga Mexicana de Béisbol) this season. One problem: the new stadium wasn’t ready for their home opener on April 16. So the Querétaro Conspiradores played their first ‘home series’ in Puebla, after which they finally opened in their real home last Friday, attracting 4,100 spectators in about 14 games. -5 victory over the Yucatán Leones.

The Finsus Stadium, which is not yet a finished product, is located in a rural area in the municipality of Huimilpan – a fan-unfriendly 40-minute drive from central Querétaro. When completed, it will have a capacity for 6,500 baseball players.

The Athletics reports that MLS expansion team San Diego FC is in “advanced discussions” to sign Mexican national team star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano away from his team in Europe, PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. San Diego, which will move to MLS in 2025 and would love a big player like 28-year-old Lozano, would pay a transfer fee of around $12 million to the Dutch club, The Athletic added.

With reports from Variety, Sportico, El Financiero And AP