Soccerex is a great event for the Business side of the Game

For many people who attend Soccerex, it’s the stuff of legends. It’s needed when you attend this convention. Different booths and businesses involve themselves to spread the word of their business whether it’s player-related, stadium construction, the video game section, or a brand new way to build a giant Foosball table to make it a selling product. Since 1996, Soccerex has brought many people from around North America and the world to attend and show others what they can do to make their business work for their clubs, leagues, and football associations to get better in the world’s game.

Seeing the different available products, from name and numbering designs to security firms, training products, and so much more. This event has always been a hot spot for many in the game involving the men, women, and youth clubs to get involved. One partner that I was happy to see was the Confederation of CONCACAF. They showed all four important trophies at their booth by displaying their Champions Cup, Gold Cup, Nations League Trophy, and the Women’s Champions Cup. I saw a booth with Club America from Liga MX chatting with folks about what they offer.

But here are some of the people I have spoken to about their businesses and the excitement it gave me. I met the CEO & Founder of Proyectum Sport Juan Carlos Dominguez who amazed me with his Foosball table design, but it’s not just your typical wooden game with the typical rods and holds all the players on them. He created a replica of the Qatar World Cup Stadium from the 2022 World Cup Final and both teams represented Argentina and France who battled for that little golden trophy. There are plenty of oooooh’s and ahhhhhhhh’s including myself to see the beautiful display.

Their company started nineteen years ago in Caracas, Venezuela, and years later they moved to Spain, but four years ago they moved to Miami, Florida. PROXSTADIUM is the new product they started in 2023, creating these new replica large stadiums with a process of scanning the faces of the players who were in the starting eleven for both teams that played in the 2022 World Cup Final putting them on those metal rods and play the beautiful game.

The process to create this new PROXSTADIUM is if they have the plans for the stadium the first one will take three to four months, but once they have the correct designs to build the first one, then replica models can be built faster within less time. Besides the Qatar World Cup Stadium they have also three other stadiums in production ready to go. They have from Buenos Aries the home of River Plate Estadio Mas Monumental, the home of Boca Juniors La Bombonera, and from La Liga in Spain, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. They do have the ability to create a stadium from a Premier League team, but that information wasn’t presented to me at that time.

The hope for American Soccer fans is that they can create a foosball table, and it can be a BMO Stadium, a Red Bull Arena, an Audi Field, a Q2 Stadium, and so on to have one of these stadium size foosball tables in your basement, family room, or a man cave. This new idea to make an old-style game better and more fun is something I hope one day can be in every person’s household or at a rec center new you.

With stadium construction, times have changed with newer materials to add seats for small, large, and gigantic new stadiums like Everton leaving Goodison Park for a brand new facility or the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium replacing White Hart Lane. Alcor Equipments based outside of Angers in Maine-et-Loire in France, constructs seating sections or benches for new stadiums either on a temporary or permanent basis.

Speaking to President Erik LePort he fascinated me with the new materials they use to create these new seating designs to help professional clubs or special sporting events shine either for soccer, skiing, or other types of events. They don’t need any nuts or bolts to keep the seats together during construction for a temporary event or a full time stadium usage. The materials are recyclable and their products have been used across France and other countries. There is B.G. Stadium for B.G. Pathum United FC in Thailand, Yamoussoukro Stadium located in the Ivory Coast, Bordeaux’s The Atlantique and so much more.
Maybe if the New England Revolution does get the votes to start construction for their new stadium, Alcor Equipments can be the ones to help them install these new seating designs.

We have recently seen mini pitches created in certain parts of the United States in our cities that normally would take over either a painted baseball field on concrete in a schoolyard or rehabbing an area that was originally used for children’s activities. Musco Lighting has gotten involved with creating new mini pitches and they are led by former General Manager of USL League Two’s Des Moines Menace Charlie Bales as their Soccer Market Manager.

Creating these mini pitches has become a big boom for the sport of soccer in the United States, and seeing a few being built in the New York City Tri-State Area with the help of the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC puts a smile on my face and now this company is taking their business up north to Canada where they have been getting requests to build these projects to help the youth get involved with the game on Canadian Soil. North American Soccer is getting stronger by the year, and this is a good start to help create players for both boys and girls to make the sport popular.

When we look at player development around the world, who do you go to get your child either a boy or a girl to get noticed by the many clubs around the world? Especially when you have kids coming from other parts of the world. In Saudi Arabia, there is such a place to give young players a chance to be tested and scouted to the clubs within their region and abroad. Grintafy which has an app available for either Apple or Google Play stores will help kids in the Middle East get to clubs within their region or across the globe and get noticed.

They have partnerships with several clubs like Cadiz FC, Real Oviedo, Al Ittihad FC, West Ham United in England, and Zamora Football Club in Spain and they just signed a deal with Serie A to help them find players for their clubs in the top flight of Italy’s league. These people have shown a lot of dedication to the game and helping these new players get ready for their next adventure, to become professional players across the globe or discovered within their own country, or region.

What I also loved about Soccerex was all the different symposiums that were offered to people attending this convention. From CONCACAF’s General Secretary Philippe Moggio to those from Television like Alexi Lalas of FOX Soccer, and Jenny Chiu of CBS Sports Golazo, discussing Women’s soccer, to the referee’s point of view, soccer club owners and discussing how stadium construction is improving the game, and so much more. Meeting other members of the media, Fifa Accredited soccer agents and so much more.

All of this was displayed at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, and it was a fantastic experience I hope to get another chance to do it again. Maybe there will be a symposium on how internet writing or live streaming podcasting helps those get different opinions of the game from those of us who have been watching and give a better side of the discussion in hand. But I would like to thank Soccerex for allowing me to attend their event and see the other side of the business that is off the pitch.