Opinion by Pablo Barrera

Is it even possible to build a stadium with a capacity for 50,000 people in Xela? I think we've all had that desire, or at least that idea that has crossed our minds, of building a stadium of that capacity for the city of Quetzaltenango. Since the frustrated attempts to host the Central American Games in Xela, there hasn't really been a genuine effort to build high-level sports infrastructure. I've thought about it a lot. And I think I've come to the conclusion that it is possible to build a stadium for 50,000 people in Xela. The key would be to diversify income sources to build such sports infrastructure. This is just an idea. It's just a proposal. But dreaming costs nothing!

That's why I'm presenting this proposal that came to mind. To build such a massive project, we're going to use several income sources:

Naming Rights:

The first one will be Naming Rights. This means that a company, generally a multinational, would pay a certain amount of money for their brand to be the name of the stadium for "x" number of years. This would represent enormous publicity every time the venue where Xelaju MC would play is mentioned.

For this case, and using artificial intelligence, I've come to the conclusion that this agreement could be for a period of 20 years, for the amount of $10 million dollars. This would be a significant step towards financing this stadium.

I once saw a Simpsons episode that made me laugh a lot. In the episode, Homer comes up with an idea to finance the construction of a new stadium in Springfield. The idea was a bit crazy, honestly, even laughable, but it made sense and Marge actually praised Homer for his idea. The idea was basically to name the stadium with approximately 20 brands. You really burst out laughing when you hear that. But if we look at it with some perspective, this idea has logic. You can actually add more brands to the Naming Rights, two or three at most. Then, the amount of money raised could be increased. This way, a total of $20 or $30 million dollars could be raised for the stadium's construction.

Sale of Seats:

The second source of funding would come from our compatriots in the United States. Double seats or double bleacher seats could be sold to compatriots in the United States at a price of $5,000 per double seat. There would be at least 5,000 such packages at a price of $5,000, totaling $25 million dollars. This means it would be something exclusive and for a determined period, which could be 10, 15, or 20 years.

Sale of Commercial Spaces:

The third form of income would be through the sale of commercial spaces that would be on the first level of the stadium. Just think of all that wasted space that wouldn't really be used for anything. That could be leveraged by selling spaces on the first level. Imagine having spaces of 5 * 10 or 15 meters. These spaces could be sold at a very good price. Perhaps around Q600,000 quetzales or $75,000 dollars each. I've calculated the number of spaces that could be sold. In total, there could be approximately 60 spaces. We're talking about almost 36 million quetzales or $4,250,000 dollars.

Sale of the Four Corners of the Stadium:

The fourth revenue stream would be through selling the land at the corners of the stadium. The stadium doesn't necessarily have to cover all the land where it will be built. Think of stadiums in England that may have available corners for other constructions. This space could be sold to large retail businesses for a good amount of money. With this and the four corners, a lot of money could be raised from their sale.

Just imagine each plot of land having dimensions of, for example, 50 * 50 meters, which would be equivalent to 2,500 square meters. Let's suppose - and I say just suppose - that the square meter price was, say, Q8,000 quetzales or more. Multiply that by the number of square meters and it would be equivalent to almost 20 million quetzales. Multiplied by four, that would be almost Q80 million quetzales or almost $10 million dollars.

If we add up all the financing we've raised, including Naming Rights, sale of seats, sale of commercial spaces, and sale of the land in the four corners of the stadium to multinational retail businesses, that would total almost $60 million dollars or approximately Q480 million quetzales.

Such financing would be sufficient to build the structure and the basics of a stadium with a capacity for 50,000 people, or at least that's what one would believe. What do you think of this idea and proposal? Let us know, and I hope you liked this article. Tell us if you think it's possible to carry out a project of such magnitude here in Xela.

Have a good day!