‘It was gritty’: NM United’s Ron Patel on the club’s early days

The early days of New Mexico United are still etched in Ron Patel’s memory. “It was gritty when we started the team — all the spreadsheets told us don’t start a sports team in New Mexico,” says Patel, who became the second president of the club in 2024.

Patel says he and others involved in creating the foundation for New Mexico’s only United Soccer League team, including majority owner and CEO Peter Trevisani, “used that as fuel.”

Patel has been involved with the organization since 2018, when he co-founded and became the first employee of United. He says he made the tough decision to leave New Mexico and move to southern Texas to organize a sports and entertainment group just two years after the club’s founding, but would return to United in 2022 as chief revenue officer. He succeeded Trevisani in the top role last year.

For Patel, who also ran Albuquerque Sol F.C. before United, turning his passion into a profession felt inevitable — a natural step for someone born in England with a lifelong love for the game.

“My mom and dad tell me that I literally was kicking a ball before I could walk,” he says. “I would be in my room, my parents would walk by, and they would hear my voice, and I was commentating fictitious soccer games, sitting there ... pretending Liverpool was playing.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you enjoy most in your current role as United president?

I mean, everything, because it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like I’m doing what I was put on earth to do. That’s what it feels like to me. ... Every day when I walk in here, it’s like, “All right, how are we gonna do this today?” And I’m motivated, I’m excited — it’s not work. It’s not like, “Oh my god, I gotta go work.” I can’t tell you the last time I said that. That’s not part of my thing. There are bad meetings sometimes, but at the end of the day, we get to do this for New Mexico. It’s pretty cool.

Can you give an example of a challenging time at United?

I think just figuring out the stadium, right? I had run this semi-pro amateur team, but that was just a high school facility with general admission seating. When United came to the stadium, we had to figure out all these different sections that had different price levels. You had to have software to do that. And so there’s all this stuff you want to do, but things take time to create. We had a 13,000 to 13,500 capacity at Isotopes Park. And when we did our initial plans, we were shooting to get to 6,000 tickets per game sold. That was our goal. That was the big goal of the board. We had a thermometer to see how we’re going to get there, and we ended up averaging 12,000 that first year. So, we doubled our stretch goal, but we didn’t get there overnight.

By the time we got to Christmas, I think we were at 1,500 for Opening Day. I was just like, “Oh, crap, we’re in a lot of trouble.” We’re panicking, like, “How the heck are we going to solve this thing to get it to 6,000?” We ended up getting 11,572 at the home opener. It was a lot of trial and error.

How did you overcome that?

I think what we found was that this is not transactional. Everything in the world is about relationships. It’s so much more magnified here. We’re a small town. Relationships really, really matter. We’ve had people come into the club who have been on the business side, trying to sell sponsorships, tickets, whatever, and have not taken a relationship mindset and tried being more transactional, and they just haven’t succeeded, because that’s not how it works here. You don’t talk at New Mexicans, right? You talk to them or with them, and somebody who tries to talk at them — it just doesn’t work. No one’s gonna buy from you.

What got you into professional soccer?

Knowing that I wanted to do something bigger than what we were doing with Albuquerque Sol F.C. I mean, it was great. Albuquerque Sol was awesome. That was kind of my education, I guess, to get into pro soccer. I wanted to make a bigger impact, but I couldn’t do it myself. I needed a bigger team. I needed more finances. I didn’t know him yet, but I needed Pete’s vision to really take us to the next level. I think that’s what really did it.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best piece of advice someone ever gave me is: Don’t take advice from anybody; listen to their experiences and apply them to your situation. What I mean by that is you can always apply someone’s learnings to your situation. I try to do that. Sometimes the best things I’ve learned have been from outside of the sports industry — maybe someone who runs a car dealership has shared something that worked well for them, or something that a personal trainer works great for them, and I’ve applied that to our situation.

Any hobbies?

I have a 19-month-old now, as of this week. So, anything with her. I love tickle fights with her. I love playtime with her. I get to put her to bed every night. We’ll listen to some music and talk a little bit as I give her a nice little glass of milk. Love to travel. ... I do participate in the occasional sprint triathlon. I’m going to do another one this year. While my body might not resemble it, I do enjoy exercise and working out. I’ve got to get the diet and the not drinking beer part down better.