More than 400 people from at least 11 countries have registered their interest in purchasing an NFT from Necaxa that comes with 1% ownership of the Liga MX club, according to co-owner Al Tylis.
Friday morning, the club emailed the interested parties and updated its sale process. Rather than hosting an auction on NFT marketplace OpenSea, Necaxa is directly requesting best and final sealed bids by June 17. The reserve price is $1.3 million, with the winner receiving ownership benefits (though no voting rights) and the ability to sell their stake to anyone meeting a baseline standard. The team says it has already received a bid higher than the reserve price.
Following Necaxa’s initial announcement, the Mexican Football Federation said any changes to team control would still require league approval, before the club put out a statement last Friday reiterating its plans.
Tylis said the NFT’s website drew 50,000 visits and three offers to preempt next week’s auction. “This is a new asset class, where we are creating the first of its kind,” Tylis told Bloomberg last week. “And if I’m right and there will be other sports teams [which create] assets that have NFTs, I believe that [this stake], which is the first of its kind ever, will have real, tangible, long-term value.”
Tylis, who has also invested in soccer teams in the U.S., Wales and New Zealand, co-led an investor group that recently bought 50% of Necaxa. The club was valued in the low nine figures at the time. The first significant U.S. investment in a Liga MX team also drew a collection of celebrity investors, including actress Eva Longoria, model Kate Upton and athletes Mesut Ozil, Justin Verlander, Richard Hamilton, Victor Oladipo and Bode Miller.
