Expansion Plan for Major League Rugby to Nuevo León, Mexico in 2025

Americas Rugby News
December 12, 2023

Cuatrecasas has made public their initiative for the first professional Mexican rugby team. Cuatrecasas advised Rugby Ventures México on signing a contract with the Nuevo León Institute for Physical Education and Sports (INDE) to enable its rugby team to play at the new facilities INDE is building.

This is not the first time that a project has emerged for Mexico to enter a team in the MLR. An Annual report in December 2020 confirmed that Mexico was seeking to have a team in the league. Plans included High Performance Centers in Mexico’s three largest cities: Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City.

The Nuevo León team, which intends on entering MLR 2025, will play out of Monterrey. The team does not have an official name yet. However, the contract will enable Rugby Ventures Mexico to obtain financial support due to the facilities and the construction improvements to the new stadium.

The Cuatrecasas legal team are handling the transaction. The legal team is made up of lawyers Santiago Ferrer, Ivana Muñiz and Jerónimo Rico from the Mexico City office.

Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo León. The northern Mexican state shares a narrow 9-mile border with Texas. Monterrey and Nuevo León share the same time zone with MLR teams Chicago, NOLA, Houston and Dallas.

The move comes in the wake of two MLR teams folding. Toronto and New York will not play in MLR 2024. A Mexican entrant would therefore see the MLR back to being a professional league across multiple countries.