Grupo Ollamani, spun off from Televisa and owner of Club América and Estadio Azteca, continues to feel the burden of hosting the World Cup for the third time. After losing a year-and-a-half-long legal battle against the owners of boxes and stands in the venue, the company has had to assume before FIFA the cost of those 15,000 seats: 62.4 million dollars (about 1 billion pesos), so that the owners can use and access all the matches of the tournament free of charge, which starts in 38 days. This was reported by the company in its annual report published on the Mexican Stock Exchange, where it detailed that it will begin to disburse the amount starting May 20.
The story dates back to the 1960s, when Televisa was seeking resources for the titanic task of building Estadio Azteca. To obtain them, it offered the boxes as a lucrative private property: 10 seats with a privileged view, private bathroom, two parking spaces, and the right to attend all events for 99 years. Each cost 115,000 pesos (about 9,000 dollars at the time) and, by 1966, all had been sold. The first World Cup (1970) passed without complications for the owners. It was in the 1986 Cup that they had to negotiate with Emilio El Tigre Azcárraga, then president of the company, to exercise their rights. And they succeeded.
The dispute revived during the planning of the third World Cup at the stadium, when FIFA claimed control of those spaces under the clause that grants it total dominion over the host venues from 30 days before the start of the tournament until one week after its closure. Grupo Ollamani had to resolve the conflict and tried to negotiate with the box owners, until last September it officially lost the legal dispute. Before the Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco), it signed an agreement that guarantees them free entry to the five matches of the tournament, including the opening. “Of the 16 stadiums that will be World Cup venues, only ours had complex particularities,” the company said at the time. Currently, the value of a box at Estadio Azteca is around 15 million pesos.
Roberto Ruano, leader of the Association of Boxes and Stands, explained then in various interviews: “It’s not free, we already pay for any event in the venue. Now we have the paper with the legality and respect that the matter deserved. There are issues like parking, the entry of food and drinks that will have to be done differently to enter, with which we do not agree, but we will respect them.”
To finance the stadium’s renovation ahead of the tournament, Grupo Ollamani signed an advertising and sponsorship agreement with Banorte for 2.1 billion pesos, which included changing the venue’s name in recognition of the financial institution. Just over a month before the opening whistle, resale prices for the first match, which will be played on June 11, range from 123,000 pesos (almost 7,000 dollars) to 1.37 million pesos (about 77,700 dollars) on some internet platforms.
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