Texas A&M Director of Athletics Trev Alberts had some things surprise him the first time Kyle Field hosted international soccer — a friendly between Brazil and Mexico — in June 2024.

Namely, a sea of pop-up vendors.

“Fans of different sports have different traditions and act differently,” Alberts said. “And so, you know, we had several just pop-up vendors all across [campus] … nothing necessarily wrong with that, other than that it was new. We were like, ‘What is that? How do we address that?’ I think that was part of the learning process for our campus.”

In today’s world of college athletics, one that is now dominated by revenue sharing and NIL budgets, revenue generation has quickly become the name of the game. A&M and Alberts have responded by utilizing Kyle Field to host major events outside of Aggie football — the Brazil-Mexico match that drew 85,249 fans, a George Strait concert in 2024 and an upcoming Savannah Bananas baseball game on Saturday, May 2.

That streak is set to continue as, for just the second time in its history, Kyle Field will host Honduras and defending FIFA World Cup champion Argentina in an international friendly ahead of this year’s World Cup on Saturday, June 6. 

The earlier friendly provided proof-of-concept to the university that this was an effective revenue generator and bolstered the use of the A&M brand in this new era, Alberts said, with the Brazil-Mexico match garnering the athletic department $2.6 million.

“Essentially, we reallocated operating revenues in college athletics, right, that are directly benefiting student athletes,” Alberts said. “So how you refill those and how you look for unique opportunities to rethink those are important. … We feel confident that this is going to be a revenue generator for the department and benefit the department, and then there’s going to be a lot of qualitative things that are going to be difficult to measure, but I think are also going to advance and help.”

For Alberts, the upcoming friendly represents not only a chance to generate further revenue for the athletic department, but a chance to grow A&M’s brand on a global scale. He pointed out that the prior Mexico-Brazil match was broadcasted in 80 countries.

“I think one of the most successful things you can do is if everybody’s confused and doesn’t know what they’re doing, that’s a great sign,” Alberts said. “Because that means most or all of these people have never been to Kyle Field before, and that’s really what we’re trying to do is grow our brand. We want to have people who, perhaps had never been to a football game before, who come to Kyle Field, have a blast, and then say, ‘I need to try to come to one of those football games, too.’” 

The match will be a part of Road to 26, a series of friendlies which will also feature a matchup between Argentina and Iceland at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium. Headlining both matches is a possibility of eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi as he looks to the pitch for Argentina.

Alberts said that although the 38-year-old legend has yet to make an official decision on playing in this year’s World Cup, he expects Argentina’s most-capped player and all-time leading goalscorer to play a role in the match at Kyle Field in some form or fashion. Argentina starts its group stage matches in Kansas City 10 days after the Honduras match.

“I don’t want to make any promises, but we do anticipate him being a part of it,” Alberts said. “I’m not sure exactly what the extent of what that looks like, but yes, we do anticipate him being a part of [the match].”

College Station Mayor John Nichols was present at the press conference, officially announcing details of the match. Nichols recalled the early days of when soccer was first introduced to College Station — “Not one parent knew anything about coaching a soccer team” — before commenting on the economic impact that he expects the match will have on the city and local businesses.

“That is really critical, to have three or four more events beyond the football season, to help harvest the investment that the private sector has made here in hotel rooms,” Nichols said. “We support a lot of that development in many different ways, but those business people in the community count on these big weekends to help them make the bottom line and return real energy and economic value to the employees and the citizens of the city as well.”

ESPN’s Fernando Palomo ‘95 has seen quite a bit of soccer in his time. As one of the network’s leading Spanish-language play-by-play broadcasters, he’s had the opportunity to cover the sport’s biggest stars on a variety of stages.

But few things compare to the chance of seeing the world’s biggest star at home in Aggieland, he said at a press conference announcing the match.

Palomo compared the potential of Messi taking the field at Kyle to a visit Muhammad Ali made to Aggieland in 1979, just before his final bout two years later. But, according to Palomo, Messi is still a step above the plethora of college athletes who have come to Aggieland and went on to have successful professional careers.

“Just a chance to know that he might be able to come with his national team to this place, just gives me goosebumps,” Palomo said. “I’m just beyond excited to be able to say that I might have a chance to call a soccer game in Kyle Field with the defending World Cup champions in town.” 

Palomo believes the match will be a memory that both Aggies and fans of the sport and the nations involved will never forget.

“What we’re about to see, [is] not only a game, but a spectacle,” Palomo said. “Something that we get to enjoy, not just for a day, but for a whole week, something that we get to talk about for not just a week but a whole lifetime. Because I think this is what we’re getting. We’re getting a defending World Cup champion to come our way.”