A new Dome away from home for Mexico

The electronic signboards were flashing their messages in Spanish halfway around the field at the Georgia Dome Tuesday morning as the Venezuelan national team departed, making way for Mexico’s El Tricolor.

Mexico's Giovani dos Santos meets the press at the Georgia Dome.

That would be the real grass field at the Georgia Dome, laid down Saturday for tomorrow night’s friendly between the two nations, in what will be the first competitive soccer contest in the home of the Falcons.

Aside from the red and black seat and remaining Falcons logos, there’s little other indication that the Dome hasn’t been completely taken over by the Mexican soccer federation and the corporate sponsors — four of them based in Atlanta — who are financing this summer’s five-city American national team tour.

Because the Mexican team prefers to play on grass, Soccer United Marketing, the Major League Soccer-affiliated group putting on the tour, is paying an estimated $100,000 for the real sod, which will be pulled up after the game and donated to local organizations.

More than two dozen media representatives gathered Tuesday, and while Venezuelan players were made available for interviews, most of the press snapped photos, shot video, turned on microphones and jotted down notes while talking to Mexican players and coach Javier Aguirre, who conducted a press conference almost entirely in Spanish.

And Aguirre, who recently took the reins of El Tricolor after a slow start to World Cup qualifying, was questioned rather vigorously, and repeatedly, about Mexico’s chances of getting to South Africa next summer.

Awaiting media members at the accreditation table was a glossy 22-page program, “La Ola Verde,” featuring the Mexican team. There was no similar information for Venezuela, a baseball-happy nation that’s the only member of CONMEBOL, the South American confederation, never to have reached the World Cup.

As Atlantans are about to find out — and what many cities across the U.S. have known for some time — when El Tri comes to town, it’s always the home team.

The Sports Business Journal declared the Mexican squad the most marketable soccer property in the United States, ahead of the U.S. national team that has had El Tri’s number on the field in recent years, and ahead of all of the 15 Major League Soccer teams that are currently in mid-season. Attendances, television ratings and corporate interest back up that assertion, and since the Mexican tour began in 2004 new territories are being explored.

Such as Atlanta, with its vibrant Mexican-American community. SUM’s ticketing and promotional efforts have been concentrated along an Atlanta-Birmingham-Charlotte line, but the entire region is expected to be part of the draw that could attract more than 50,000 spectators Wednesday.

“The Southeast area is one that we’ve been looking at for a long time,” said SUM spokeswoman Marisabel Muñoz. “It has been on the commissioner’s radar.”

That would be MLS commissioner Don Garber, who may be in town for the game to discuss long-term MLS expansion possibilities in Atlanta with representatives of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who briefly bid for an expansion franchise earlier this year before withdrawing.

Muñoz said the Mexican team played in Seattle last summer when organizers were skeptical about the turnout, but more than 56,000 attended. Now in its first season in MLS, Seattle’s become a soccer hotbed in North America. So has Houston, where the Mexican team played before the MLS Dynamo relocated from San Jose.

Part of El Tri’s visit to American cities include player and team appearances around game dates. Since Sunday, individual Mexican players, past and present, have been featured at places such as Home Depot and AT & T retail stores — they’re among the Atlanta corporate sponsors — from Gainesville  down to Gwinnett and North DeKalb. Signing autographs, appearing with fans in photos and other promotional work are part of a busy summer that coincides with a break in the Mexican domestic league seasons.

There also was a team event at the World of Coca-Cola — another corporate sponsor. On Wednesday, an interactive “Fútbol Fiesta” fan zone will open in the Dome’s orange parking lot at 3:3o pm.

The Mexican team heads off to San Diego for a match against Guatemala over the weekend, and will remain in the States to participate in the Gold Cup, which is the continental tournament of the CONCACAF region. It’s an event Mexican players are adamant about winning. After that, there’s “August 12,” as Aguirre put it, referring to the date of the U.S.-Mexico rematch in Mexico City’s imposing Estadio Azteca, where El Tri has never lost to its rival.

Georgia Dome officials are used to playing host to big events, but spokeswoman Ashley Boatman said the only different aspect of preparing for this game is the installation of the grass.

“On an international level, it equates to a Super Bowl or a Final Four,” she said. “For fans of soccer, an event like this is a major event.”