Gabriel Villaseñor Zurita, avocado producer and cousin of Ulises Zurita, former president of Querétaro and current president of Salamanca in Spain's Segunda B, stated that the Atlético Morelia project in the Liga de Expansión is led by 17 partners, four of whom, including him and José Luis Higuera, own 50 percent of the shares.
The businessman mentioned that within this partnership, "the financial contributions are very balanced, with four individuals owning 50 percent and the other 12 owning the remaining 50 percent."
After highlighting that Higuera "is one of the strongest partners" in the project, he explained how he also got involved in football.
"Higuera was doing some business in Oaxaca with some of my friends and they invited me to a meal at Enrique Ramírez's house. They mentioned that football was leaving Michoacán at that time. At that moment, there were four entrepreneurs, José Luis, the Secretary General of the Government, Carlos Herrera, and they invited us to be part of the project."
He expressed that initially, he and José Luis Higuera were going to start the project to bring football back to Morelia, through the Zacatepec franchise.
"There was a moment when it was just José Luis and me when the decision was made two Fridays ago. There were people who couldn't decide and practically, the final decision was made this Thursday, as a reality. We had already been given the field and everything."
"We want to create a project of adding and not subtracting. After it became a reality with José Luis, more people joined," he added.
Although there are already many, we asked if they would be open to accepting more people into this partnership: "Look, right now we are closed. In fact, I think we opened up more than planned, but we saw a lot of interest from responsible entrepreneurs in Michoacán, with strong values, who want to bring a social impact to our state. That's why we opened the door."
And, precisely regarding the field lease at Estadio Morelos, he mentioned that it was agreed with the government that the club will not leave Michoacán, just like Grupo Salinas did with Monarcas Morelia.
"The lease is indefinite, it only ends if we wanted to, if we were to take the team elsewhere, which we don't plan to do."
He indicated that, as with the owners of Monarcas Morelia, the lease is granted to them for free, with the commitment to only pay for services such as electricity, maintenance, water, etc.
On the other hand, the businessman explained that the project is financially self-sustainable, which is why he stated: "The government is not contributing a single peso, the only support they provided is giving us the lease (of Estadio Morelos) and fixing it."
"A project of this magnitude being fixed in less than 22 days, despite bureaucracy and the Covid-19 problem, seemed very fast to me, it looked very good; José Luis did a great job and things came together."
CHANGING THE IMAGE OF MICHOACÁN
Gabriel Villaseñor Zurita expressed hope that the arrival of Atletico Morelia in Michoacán will provoke a change in the state, which has been immersed in violence and organized crime in recent years.
"We are working on the reconstruction of Michoacán's social fabric, which is lacking in that aspect. If we create young athletes, we will create people with a different background that will translate into entrepreneurs and good people, because Michoacán is heavily contaminated."
"People are happy, enthusiastic, and optimistic; the Secretary General of the Government has supported this project a lot, and most of the partners are from Michoacán. We are committed to the fans, the state, and the reconstruction of the social fabric."
He expressed that Michoacán has a lot to offer, as it is one of the largest avocado, guava, and blackberry producers in the world, not to mention its magical towns.
"There are many things in Michoacán, and unfortunately, we have focused on the bad ones," he said, so with the return of football, they intend to give the state "a fresh and beautiful image," he concluded.