2023-06-25 20:27:15
Plans are one thing… and facts are another thing: dreaming of what you want and then settling for what is. But in the year and a half of Mark Heffernan at the Romano, the fans from Emeritus have understood how stubborn he is. He has not come to become a millionaire, because he already is, but to test if his project can successfully take root in professional football.
Nacho Ramos has implemented his plan in the last year and now it is up to Alejandro Pérez Robles (Algeciras, 1990) to take it to a higher level. «I am a staunch follower of his methodology because I blindly trust the data. At every company I’ve worked at, every decision was completely data-driven. And this is one of the tasks that Mark has given me here in Mérida. Progressing in this data methodology, increasing the club’s own income and generating community are the three main objectives of the new general manager of Mérida. «With feet of lead and a lot of humility».
Alejandro Pérez is already working at full capacity after a month of adaptation in the shadow of Nacho Ramos, his predecessor and discoverer. And on a continuous line of work, his job will now be to give the club a qualitative and quantitative push to jump into the world of professional business. His growth chart is based on “four fundamental pillars.”
The four pillars of Alexander
The first rests on the organizational structure of the entity: live it as a football club, but conceive it as the company that it is. “We have to evolve at the organizational level in every way,” emphasizes Alejandro Pérez himself. “Improve all the information systems that we already have, establish a much more fluid communication with all the entities with which we have a relationship and manage to clean up our financial statements to make them available to the sports sector.”
The second pillar is focused on the financial aspect, or what is the same: increasing the income capacity of the club through sponsors, the sale of season tickets and tickets, public subsidies, television rights and merchandising. “This year we want to bet a lot on sales in physical and online stores,” says the new general director from Emeritus. “We have to create a fully sustainable entity. In the sports section, what happens is uncontrollable; but in finance we have to control everything. And in what is controllable we have to be sustainable and optimize the club little by little.
«I am convinced that we can make the club grow in many fields; We have no limits to that growth”
«I am a staunch follower of Mark’s methodology because I blindly trust the data; It is one of the tasks that he has imposed on me »
Third, the universe of data. Advance in big data in the sports section and function in the same way in the economic and business aspect. “We have to enter a new era now,” Alejandro Pérez is convinced. «In the sports section we must take a leap and adapt to the vanguard of football, which is what is done today in the top-level leagues. We have to do it by creating our own systems, when it comes to generating reports, analyzing variables… And in the business aspect we are introducing new systems to start analyzing all the opportunities we have in the region, which are many”.
And lastly, forge a sense of community. “This must be a family.” «Focus on continuing to increase the number of children who are increasingly closer to Romano, promote employment among local students (we are beginning to build bridges with the different universities in the region to offer and generate employment) and not lose sight of all the companies that surround us to establish collaborations with them.
“We have no limits”
«If we base ourselves on the data we are capable of anything. We could compete with anyone”, launches Alejandro Pérez convinced. “Mark’s project is intended for the long term, which is what primarily attracted me. I am convinced that we can make the club grow in many fields and today we have no limits to that growth. The first stones have already been laid and now we have to continue with these four fundamental pillars.
This last season, the owner of Mérida has paid around one and a half million euros out of pocket. Nine hundred thousand of them due to the budget gap generated by the category. “We have to increase our capacity to generate income so that, in a few years, we will be sustainable without the need for the owner to contribute his capital”, is the mantra that is repeated among all the club’s employees. «Everything that the club generates more will be reverted one hundred percent to the sports section and not for Mark to recover what he has put in. And that is how it will be until the club is sustainable without the need for contributions from anyone.
“The professional project is exciting, with tremendous potential and based on stability and finding long-term sustainability no matter what,” explains Alejandro Pérez. “I am a person who is based on integrity, humility and is very demanding, with myself and with everyone around me, because it is the only way to make the club grow and professionalize it in all areas”. In a year and a half, Mérida has grown tremendously… but what still remains borders on science fiction.
#science #fiction #Merida