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Are You Ready For Some “Fútbol Americano”? NFL Builds Fan Base In Mexico

It’s no secret that Mexicans are crazy about fútbol, aka, soccer. But there’s also growing interest in the kind of football played north of the border, where local teams have loyal supporters, and fans who make pilgrimages to Dallas and San Diego for NFL

A player of the Monterrey Technological Institute during a match against the Pumas CU UNAM (devilpato1)
A player of the Monterrey Technological Institute during a match against the Pumas CU UNAM (devilpato1)

Anyone stupid enough to make an unexpected move toward President Felipe Calderón can expect to experience something most of us have only seen on television: a crushing, bone-rattling, American football-style body blow.

This isn't a metaphor. The Mexican president's security team really does know how to tackle. Why? Because the security guards – as strange as it may sound in soccer-crazy Mexico – have formed their own American football team: the "Sentinels," which play in the country's National Student Organization Of American Football (ONEFA).

Football, as in the American "pigskin" variety, is actually pretty big south of the border. Top ONEFA teams like the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), arch-rival Politécnico Nacional and the upstart Monterrey Technological Institute all have large local followings. So too do the professional National Football League (NFL) teams from "up north." Favorite clubs include the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers. During football season, thousands of Mexican fans trek across the border just to attend Chargers and Cowboys games. There are even a handful of Mexicans who play in the NFL.

It's no wonder, then, that in 2005, the NFL chose Mexico City for the first regular season match ever to be played outside of the United States. The game, between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, drew 103,467 spectators – an all-time record, US stadiums included, that still stands.

"In terms of the volume of business, the strongest market for the NFL is still the domestic one. But in order to grow, the league needs to expand its fan base," says Arturo Olivé, the NFL's general director of operations in Mexico.

That means doing everything possible to encourage Mexico's already growing interest in the sport. Olivé"s goal over the next three years is also to attract more local sponsors. But even though the NFL has operated an office in Mexico City since 1998, the sport isn't likely – at least in the foreseeable future – to supplant the other kind of "futbol" as the country's favorite pastime.

The NFL must compete too with another favorite sport involving brawny men in shiny outfits: Mexican "lucha libre" wrestling.

Read more from AméricaEconomía in Spanish

Photo - devilpato1

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Economy

Globalization Takes A New Turn, Away From China

China is still a manufacturing juggernaut and a growing power, but companies are looking for alternatives as Chinese labor costs continue to rise — as do geopolitical tensions with Beijing.

Photo of a woman working at a motorbike factory in China's Yunnan Province.

A woman works at a motorbike factory in China's Yunnan Province.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — What were the representatives of dozens of large American companies doing in Vietnam these past few days?

A few days earlier, a delegation of foreign company chiefs currently based in China were being welcomed by business and government leaders in Mexico.

Then there was Foxconn, Apple's Taiwanese subcontractor, which signed an investment deal in the Indian state of Telangana, enabling the creation of 100,000 jobs. You read that right: 100,000 jobs.

What these three examples have in common is the frantic search for production sites — other than China!

For the past quarter century, China has borne the crown of the "world's factory," manufacturing the parts and products that the rest of the planet needs. Billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba.com platform is based on this principle: if you are a manufacturer and you are looking for cheap ball bearings, or if you are looking for the cheapest way to produce socks or computers, Alibaba will provide you with a solution among the jungle of factories in Shenzhen or Dongguan, in southern China.

All of this is still not over, but the ebb is well underway.

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