Unlike in Santa Fe, minor league arena soccer teams faced little kickback

Mar. 5—Although he's never been to Santa Fe to sample the green chile or gaze upon the Sangre de Cristos at sunset, Chris Economides said he's becoming familiar with a truth about the City Different.

Nothing, he has learned, comes easy.

The commissioner of Major Arena Soccer League 2 — or M2 as it's colloquially called — Economides has worked behind the scenes for months to get a proposed locally owned team off the ground. In December, he sold rights to an expansion franchise to Santa Fe businessman David Fresquez with the intent of playing a six-game home schedule in the Genoveva Chavez Community Center's ice arena.

"I'm a little surprised at the amount of resistance we're getting," he said in a telephone interview from his Florida office earlier this week. "I feel like we're trying to produce something that's good for the community, good for the local economy, but what we're getting are all these roadblocks."

Much has been made of the turf war brewing between Fresquez and the city's skating community, but the focus for Economides has become a positive sales pitch for what M2 can do to raise the quality of life in Santa Fe.

What he sees is a city without a sports team of its own. What he sees is Fresquez being the perfect person to deliver it.

"I've been doing this 35 years, and every time a team succeeds, it's an economic benefit to the city it plays in," Economides said. "We're not talking millions of dollars here. Teams usually don't make money for themselves; this isn't Major League Soccer or the NFL. The benefit has more to do with giving a community something to root for because nothing brings people together like a local, healthy sports team."

A typical M2 franchise, he said, is valued between $100,000 and $150,000 and is intended for cities roughly the size of Santa Fe. M2's sister league, M1, has franchises worth 10 times that amount, but each is targeted for metropolitan areas of 1 million people or more.

If it launches, Santa Fe's club would play in M2's Midwest division, alongside regional rivals based in Amarillo, Texas; Wichita, Kan.; Dodge City, Kan.; Colorado Springs and Rio Rancho.

The league's teams play in venues such as the Rio Rancho Events Center (capacity 6,000), Dodge City's United Wireless Arena (5,300) and the SoccerHaus Sports and Events Center in Colorado Springs, which has limited seating but an elevated tavern that overlooks a field built exclusively for indoor soccer and lacrosse.

The evolution of Santa Fe's M2 club is of keen interest to a man less than an hour's drive from the Chavez Center. Andres Trujillo is the owner and CEO of the team in Rio Rancho, the New Mexico Runners. When he founded the club five years ago, he was given exclusive franchising rights within a 50-mile radius of the Rio Rancho Events Center.

As the crow flies, the Chavez Center is just a tick over 49 miles from the Runners' 6,000-seat arena. Trujillo had veto power over any club wanting to play in Santa Fe but granted a waiver after meeting with Fresquez.

"I really like David and, honestly, if we can get a team up there, it gives us a regional rival that's easy to get to," Trujillo said. "I understand the challenges he's got, so if I can ever offer advice, I'm right here."

What he can't help with is the primary obstacle facing Fresquez. Trujillo said at no point did he encounter a group as opposed to arena soccer as Santa Fe's hockey and ice skating communities. Their resistance has threatened to unravel Fresquez's plan before it even starts.

Economides understands soccer's only chance of survival in Santa Fe is finding a way to co-exist in an arena made specifically for hockey and figure skating. He said M2 can wait until September before making a decision about moving forward with Santa Fe being a part of the league in 2023-24.

"Right now, the expectation is that we do this," he said. "My feeling is if we get this team off the ground, it's going to be wildly successful because, and I've said this before, if I were to have a poster child for what the ideal ownership group in our league looks like, it's David Fresquez. He's not in this to make money; none of our owners are. His best intentions are with that community, and I hope everyone sees that."

Not all teams face the same issues. Trujillo acknowledges he's had his challenges, but launching the Runners and establishing a base in the Events Center in Rio Rancho was largely seamless compared to what Fresquez is dealing with. Trujillo's original contract with the facility called for an $8,000 rental for every home game, a figure he has managed through creative marketing and business savvy.

Average attendance at home games is about 1,000, he said.

"When we started, the [Events Center] hadn't had a sports tenant in, like, three years, so I think they were happy having someone in there," Trujillo said. "I wouldn't say it was all easy. I mean, the city gave us the business license and people were supportive, but we did have our own things to deal with."

Built as a multipurpose arena meant to house hockey, basketball, monster trucks, concerts and other non-sports related entertainment acts, the Rio Rancho building came ready-made with the infrastructure M2 requires all of its venues to have. It had hockey chaser boards and a generous floor space of about 200 feet by 85 feet.

"I've never taken a dime of the city's money, and I've never really gotten support from city government at all," Trujillo said. "Making this work is something you need to do on your own and, yeah, I see all the things David's got up there. He's dealing with problems we didn't have."

Trujillo built a career working in sports media and with various local sports entities. He invested in previous iterations of local clubs ranging from low-level professional soccer to arena football.

He said he was well-aware of the vast graveyard of failed sports teams that litter New Mexico's past. From barnstorming baseball clubs in Taos, Alamogordo, Ruidoso, Clovis, Las Vegas, Raton, Las Cruces and Madrid; to professional volleyball in Albuquerque; extinct basketball clubs in Gallup, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and Albuquerque; and hockey in three cities — there's more misses than hits.

Trujillo's club has managed to survive despite all that. The Runners navigated a season lost to COVID-19, returning to make a small profit each of the last two years behind a loyal fan base that spreads through word of mouth.

"Yeah, but it's not like anyone's getting rich off this," he said with a laugh. "Most sports teams take about five years to make any money. To a lot of people, buying a team is a hobby. This isn't a hobby for me, and that's what I told David. You've got to get your hands dirty, you have to be willing to do every single job in the organization or else you'll fail quickly."

While M2 is technically a professional league, Trujillo instead finds local players and has them help secure sponsorships that allow them to keep a commission. For others, he helps them land part-time jobs during the season.

The Runners have an annual operating costs of roughly six figures. Last season, the team turned a $15,000 profit, and the projection for this year is just a bit higher.

"I mean, it can be done, but the thing I tell David is he has to understand it's never going to be easy," Trujillo said. "If you can find your way through all that, maybe it works."