The NBA will be returning to Mexico City once again during the 2018/19 regular season, with the Magic set to play the Bulls and Jazz at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico on December 13 and December 15, respectively. Orlando announced the news today in a press release.
It will be the third consecutive season that the NBA has played two regular season games in Mexico City. In 2016/17, the Suns played a pair of games in Mexico, while the Nets did so during the 2017/18 season. In those cases though, Phoenix and Brooklyn gave up one home game apiece — both Mexico City games in 2018/19 will count as Magic home games, as John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com notes.
“Any time we have the opportunity to travel and represent the league internationally it is very attractive,” Magic CEO Alex Martins told Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. “It helps us to expand our brand in certain cities around the world. It certainly helps in relation to the promotion of our ownership’s interests in Amway, and that’s certainly the case with Mexico City as Mexico is a growing market for the Amway Corporation. So it’s a great brand-building opportunity for the Orlando Magic but also for the Amway Corporation.”
According to Robbins, Magic officials aren’t concerned about the Mexico City games general travel or rest issues for the team, since they believe the league has created a schedule that will allow for extra rest around that time. Martins also tells Robbins that the club won’t lose any revenue as a result of giving up two home games, and may even come out ahead.
The NBA projects to continue playing two games per year in Mexico City through at least the 2020/21 season, according to Orlando’s press release. This year’s games will mark the 27th and 28th games played in Mexico since 1992, and that figure will increase to 32 by ’20/21.
So do season ticket holders get a 5% reduction in their costs due to losing 2 home games?
Rebate check is in the mail as I speak
Good bye
Agree. Is a great chance to promote the Orlando Magic brand in Mexico, otherwise not many fans might be interested in the team, but if they see them play twice in their they might wanna follow them. Always is good for a team to play international games.
I hate when leagues do this. If you want to promote the sport internationally then why not do something like taking 5 groups of 6 teams for the preseason and have them host their preseason camps overseas. For example 6 teams in Rio, 6 teams in Barcelona, 6 teams in Mexico City, 6 teams in Hong Kong, 6 teams in Paris. That way fans don’t lose home games and travel is easier on the teams.