Kalil and Griffin out to transform Mexico's American football league

Dec 9 - Former NFL centre Ryan Kalil and ex-NBA forward Blake Griffin are part of a $100 million punt to turn Mexico's Liga de Futbol Americano into a sporting powerhouse in a country where 40 million people already live and breathe American football.

The investment, led by private equity firm Global Sports Capital Partners, over seven years represents the first U.S. private equity investment ‍in a ​Mexican sports league. For GSCP founder Michael MacDougall, the numbers add up.

"There are 40 million American football fans in ‍Mexico," MacDougall told Reuters. "For us, it's like: what a great place to build a league."

Kalil, Griffin and a group of investors, including active NFL players Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, already own the Monterrey Osos ​franchise. Their first ​season ended with a trip to the championship finals, with sold-out crowds. 

"They went from an empty stadium to a full stadium. They didn't have enough merchandise," MacDougall added. "It just makes me think: what if we had a merchandise store? What if we did this right?"

PROFESSIONAL POLISH

Established in 2016 with just four teams, the LFA was a direct response to ‍the popular college football scene in Mexico, which has an 80-year history. 

Kalil believes that the new investment offers a unique opportunity to take the sport to a professional level.

"There's plenty ​of talent in Mexico," explained Kalil, whose family has roots in the country. "But ⁠if players had better coaching, training, nutrition, and health and safety standards, they could easily become NFL-calibre athletes. That's a huge part of the opportunity here."

"I think sport has this rare ability to transcend race, nationality, and background. It brings all sorts of people together in a way that almost nothing else does," he added. 

"For us, the goal is to meet those professional standards for all the teams across the border, especially ​for fans, so they believe this is a new, sustainable LFA 2.0 that's here for the long haul."

Griffin emphasised the importance of getting the fundamentals right: "You want to lay that foundation. No detail is too small, ‌and it's about how you treat everyone in the organisation."

Another area of focus ​is youth development and women's flag football. Mexico's women's national flag football team are reigning World Games champions, and the sport will make its Olympic debut at LA28.

"The LFA was probably the first professional tackle football league to also have a women's flag league," MacDougall noted. "These teams already play at a high level, with many national team players competing. Now we want to grow that even more."

MEASURING SUCCESS

The league, now with eight professional teams, will be managed directly by GSCP and the firm will oversee daily operations, branding, marketing, merchandise and TV production.

"This is a Mexican league," MacDougall pointed out. "It's going to be run by people who live in Mexico for Mexican fans. We're just bringing a little bit of the U.S. playbook - and money."

MacDougall's primary metric is simple: ‍fan awareness. "If you get in a taxi or an Uber in Mexico City and mention the LFA, you want the driver to say yes and today, the answer ​is no."

"I think a media deal is a very important part of this," added Griffin, whose production company, Mortal Media, co-created with Kalil, filmed a documentary about the Osos' first season. 

"Just by creating more awareness within ​Mexico, for fans, being able to televise the games and (for us to) broadcast the games across Mexico and people being able ‌to follow their favourite team, whatever city they're in, is super important."

With the 2026 draft scheduled for January and the season kicking off in the spring, the players hope the investment will elevate the league.

"We are still in the early stages, but it's exciting and ‌the reception has been really positive," Kalil added. REUTERS