Fortaleza debuts in the first division without a stadium or subscribers but with millions of likes

Each match of the Fortaleza club, recently promoted to the first division of Colombian soccer, leaves monetary losses. The Bogotá team does not have its own field. Neither subscribers. And between stadium rental expenses when playing at home, or contracts for ambulance services and other logistical matters, operating costs amount to up to 25 million pesos (about $6,500). A figure that is still far from balancing the cash flow with a box office collection that leaves a maximum of 10 million (about $2,500). Its history, however, continues to be woven and the hearts of its few followers will be forged next year against historical figures such as Millonarios, Nacional or América.

Deportes Tolima will be the rival for the debut on January 20 in hot Ibagué. A perfect date for Santiago Montejo, head of communications, to surprise with a new media coup. It all started in 2018, when the designers decided to print “emojis” on the team's two official t-shirts. The decision soon made its way to the pages of sports newspapers around the world, where it was recorded that the idea was born from a survey of 2,000 children who train in the club's quarries. “It was a way to capture the support of social media users through digital language,” explains Montejo.

Today the team is in eighth place in number of followers in X within Colombian soccer clubs. And at the beginning of 2022, it reached fifth place in the number of interactions on social networks, according to the ranking from the specialized publication Sports and Finance: “This achievement is very important. Because followers are one thing, but frequency with the networks where we interact, comment or give reactions is another,” adds Montejo. Quite a feat for a club newly founded in 2010, in the process of shaping its identity, attracting fans and remaining in the A.

That's why marketing nods are already a hallmark of the house. In 2021, the Fortaleza players presented their new clothing after jumping onto the grass wearing a superhero cape and troll-type glasses (an icon of the digital world). And in 2023 they did it with a boxer-style golden robe under which they wore the new white t-shirt with a print that simulated the musculature of a “space armor” like Robocop: “With the robe we wanted to capture the mystique of boxing and also that which They named Messi when he won the World Cup in Qatar. That's why we chose the golden edge,” Montejo continues.

But the sporting success of no football team in the world has ever depended on advertising. Behind the project are a dozen investors who took control last year after acquiring all of the club's shares. The visible head is the former soccer player, businessman and player representative Lucas Jaramillo. His proposal is to structure an entity with the highest levels of transparency, organization and sports management. A task that entails multiple challenges in the midst of a terrain as complicated as Colombian soccer.

It is no secret to anyone that betting networks, match-fixing or drug money laundering are the order of the day, even in the deserted stands of the second division. It is worth remembering that at the beginning of the 80s the América de Cali club was on the verge of signing Maradona and that the coffers of other entities such as Millonarios or Atlético Nacional functioned as box B for drug trafficking cartels. Today it is much more difficult to discern who is who in the team organization chart. However, images are still seen, such as that of Unión Magdalena's dubious goal against Llaneros in the 2021 final, which compromises any hope of gaining credibility.

Andrés López, business administrator and shareholder of Fortaleza, emphasizes that the journey since he arrived in Fortaleza in 2018 has been as complex as it is rewarding: “Being decent and doing things clean already makes a difference. I'm not saying that all clubs are dirty, but, in general, it is still an under-policed ​​and unconventional industry.” How is the operation sustained? “The club's income component has three recurring pillars. What comes in through Dimayor (Major Division of Colombian Football), which comes from the collection of television rights or sponsorships. Second, the club sponsorships. Third, the income from our training schools,” explains López.

The Fortaleza academy operates in a rural location on the outskirts of Bogotá and welcomes more than 1,600 children who have the option of entering the Fortaleza school. An institution designed for kids who seek to combine their studies with an emphasis on sports. Another source of resources are player transfers: “But it is very variable. One year it can leave more money than the annual operation and the next leave the club in deficit if not even one operation is given to another team. That's why I take it off the operational balance sheet,” recalls López.

Fortaleza has decided to keep its roster intact to face the first half of 2024. It will be the third time that it competes in first class, where it already had fleeting steps in 2014 and 2016 without managing to maintain the category. The next step, in addition to consolidating a good campaign and obtaining benefits, is to forge the club's identity. A good starting point would be to find out where the name comes from. And the only one who knows the story, perhaps, is the president, shareholder and former technical director, Carlos Barato. The sequence is as follows. Former footballer Ricardo Cat Pérez and Víctor Manuel López, a wealthy transportation businessman, bought the record of a very modest club drowned in debt in 2010 called Atlético Juventud Girardot. The acquisition included the land where they trained on the Suba-Cota road, north of Bogotá.

In this way, Atlético Juventud Girardot gave way to the new Fortaleza FC in 2011. The infrastructure of the sports headquarters, where the entrance gate and other corners poorly aspired to imitate aspects of medieval architecture, gave the new team its name. Today the new communications managers have changed the old shield tower for a fi
st that focuses the message on “human virtue and the emotion of celebration. We transfer strength to the human gesture of clenching the fist as an expression of victory,” argues Montejo.

Who will go to the stadium to see Fortaleza in first class? Where could Fortaleza recruit its fans? In which stadium? These are some of the puzzles that are going through the heads of managers these days. “We give tickets to all affiliated children and affiliated players,” explains the club administrator, Francisco Serrano, “The idea is that they start bringing their companions, their closest family. When we have brought more people, about 2,000 people may have arrived and in other not so attractive parties, maybe 500 arrive.

Another problem is that the capital's fans already divide their loyalty between the traditional Millonarios and Santa Fe. Or a newer squad, but with its own stadium and a fairly defined popular character, like La Equidad. Santiago Montejo remembers one of the formulas used to bring fans together: “We invented the concept of 'miti-miti fans'. The idea has been to invite fans of other teams to the stadium, with their own shirts, but to support Fortaleza.”

However, Montejo himself is aware that his idea will be more complex to execute in the first category. Among the possibilities that have been explored is also that of moving to a nearby city like Zipaquirá: “It is just an example. But in a nearby municipality, with a stadium suitable for professional matches, where it can already take root, strategies can be executed with the population. Start captivating the fans,” says Andrés López. The normal thing would be to think that the team will find its niche. And for this Santiago Montejo already has something in mind: “Next January 20th we are going to arrive in the classroom with a face like a new child. The student who has fresh dreams in his head, with the illusion intact that each step in the first division is a novelty and the goal is permanence.”

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