Mexico City is a sports city the way New York or London is a sports city — meaning it has teams in everything, opinions about all of them, and the kind of passionate fan culture that can make a stadium feel like a religious experience or a war zone depending on the match. The difference is that here, football isn’t just the most popular sport. It’s a near-monopoly on public attention, with everything else fighting for whatever scraps of enthusiasm are left over.
That said, the “everything else” includes boxing with a legitimate claim to world-class status, a professional baseball team playing in a beautiful old stadium, a Formula 1 race that’s become one of the best weekends on the calendar, and the largest sports venue in the Americas. Mexico City doesn’t lack for sports. It lacks for sports that aren’t football.
Football: The Big Three (Plus One)
Mexico City has three major football clubs in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican professional football, and each one carries a distinct identity that maps onto the city’s social geography.
Club America
The biggest, richest, most successful, and most hated club in Mexican football. Club America plays at the Estadio Azteca, the 87,000-seat stadium in the south of the city that hosted two World Cup finals (1970 and 1986) and is the largest football stadium in the Americas. America has won more league titles than any other Mexican club, is owned by Televisa (the media conglomerate that has shaped Mexican entertainment for decades), and inspires a loyalty among its fans and a fury among everyone else that borders on the theological.
Going to an America game at the Azteca is an experience even if you don’t follow football. The stadium is enormous, the atmosphere is intense, and the history embedded in the concrete — Pele played here, Maradona scored the “Hand of God” goal here — gives it a weight that modern stadiums can’t replicate. The Azteca has aged, and not all of it gracefully, but its significance is undeniable.
Tickets are available through the club’s website and at the stadium. Big matches (especially against Chivas de Guadalajara, America’s historic rival) sell out. Smaller matches are easy to attend and much cheaper.
Cruz Azul
Cruz Azul is the club of the working class, historically associated with the cement workers’ cooperative that founded it. The team’s history is marked by a famous and agonizing curse: they went from 1997 to 2021 without winning a league title, suffering a series of spectacular collapses in finals and semifinals that became a national running joke. When they finally won in 2021, grown men wept in the streets.
Cruz Azul plays at the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes (formerly Estadio Azul) in the Benito Juarez borough. The stadium is smaller and older than the Azteca, with a more intimate atmosphere. Cruz Azul fans are passionate and long-suffering in a way that’s endearing if you’re not on the receiving end of their frustration.
Pumas UNAM
The university team. Pumas represents UNAM and plays at the Estadio Olimpico Universitario on the campus — the stadium built for the 1968 Olympics, with a Diego Rivera mural on its exterior. Pumas fans skew younger, more educated, and more politically engaged than the other clubs’ followings, which makes sense given the university connection.
The Estadio Olimpico is a UNESCO World Heritage component (as part of the UNAM campus), which makes it one of the few sporting venues in the world with that distinction. Attending a match here means sitting in a Diego Rivera artwork watching football at 2,240 meters of altitude. The atmosphere during big matches is electric.
Atletico de San Luis, Necaxa, and Others
Other Liga MX teams have historical connections to Mexico City even if they’ve relocated to other cities. The city’s football ecosystem also includes lower-division teams, women’s Liga MX teams (growing rapidly in attendance and quality), and amateur leagues that play on pitches across the metropolitan area every weekend.
Baseball: Diablos Rojos del Mexico
Baseball in Mexico City lives in the shadow of football, but the Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) have a dedicated following and play in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol from March through August. The team moved into the Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium in 2019 — a beautiful, modern, 20,000-seat venue near the airport that’s one of the best baseball parks in Latin America.
The stadium has good sightlines, decent food options, and an atmosphere that’s more relaxed than football matches. Baseball fans in Mexico City tend to be knowledgeable and vocal without the edge of aggression that can characterize football crowds. It’s a family-friendly outing, and ticket prices are very reasonable.
If you’re a baseball fan visiting between March and August, a Diablos game is an excellent evening out. The standard of play is solid — the Liga Mexicana feeds players into MLB’s minor league system and occasionally produces major leaguers — and the stadium itself is worth seeing.
Boxing
Mexico has one of the richest boxing traditions in the world, and Mexico City is the center of it. The city has produced world champions across multiple weight classes, and the Arena Mexico (yes, the same venue that hosts lucha libre) and other venues regularly host professional boxing cards.
The big fights happen at the Arena Mexico, the Pepsi Center WTC, or occasionally at the Azteca for mega-events. Smaller cards at neighborhood gyms and civic arenas offer a more intimate experience and a chance to see tomorrow’s champions while they’re still hungry and fighting for small purses.
Mexican boxing style — aggressive, pressure-based, willing to trade punishment for the chance to land the decisive blow — reflects something about the national character that’s hard to describe but impossible to miss when you see it in action. If you have any interest in combat sports, catching a boxing card in Mexico City is a highlight.
Formula 1: The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
The Mexican Grand Prix returned to the F1 calendar in 2015 after a 23-year absence, and it immediately became one of the most popular races on the schedule. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, located in the eastern part of the city in the Magdalena Mixhuca sports complex, hosts the race each October.
The stadium section of the circuit — where the track runs through the baseball stadium, with grandstands on both sides and a capacity of over 30,000 in that section alone — creates an atmosphere unlike any other F1 venue. The Mexican fans are loud, knowledgeable, and passionate, and the post-race celebrations on the podium (with mariachi bands, for maximum Mexico) have become iconic.
The altitude affects the cars as well as the humans. The thin air reduces engine power and aerodynamic downforce, creating unique racing conditions that teams must specifically prepare for. The racing is often entertaining precisely because the cars are at the edge of their operating parameters.
Tickets sell out quickly, especially for the cheaper general admission sections. If you’re planning to attend, book well in advance. Race week transforms the eastern part of the city, with traffic, events, and a general festival atmosphere that extends well beyond the circuit.
Other Sports
Basketball
The Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional has had teams in Mexico City, though the specific teams change with league reorganizations. Basketball is growing in popularity but remains a distant second to football.
American Football
College American football has a genuine following in Mexico City, particularly the UNAM Pumas vs. IPN Burros Blancos rivalry. The NFL has played regular-season games at the Azteca, and Mexico City is frequently mentioned as a potential location for an NFL franchise. The appetite for American football exists; the infrastructure question is more complicated.
Running and Cycling
Mexico City hosts multiple marathons, half marathons, and cycling events throughout the year. The Sunday closure of Reforma for runners and cyclists (see our running guide) is the city’s most democratic sporting event — anyone can participate, no tickets required.
Attending Sports Events: Practical Notes
Tickets: Football tickets are available through club websites (Ticketmaster Mexico handles most sales) and at stadium box offices. For big matches, buy in advance. For smaller matches, you can usually buy at the gate.
Safety: Mexican football crowds can be intense. Stick to your assigned section, don’t wear the opposing team’s colors, and be aware of your surroundings when leaving the stadium. The atmosphere is overwhelmingly festive, but tensions can spike during rivalry matches.
Getting there: The Azteca is served by the Tren Ligero from Tasquena. The Estadio Olimpico is accessible from the Universidad Metro station. For events near Chapultepec, Metro Line 1 to Chapultepec station works well. Avoid driving to sporting events — parking is a nightmare and post-game traffic is worse.
Food and drink: Stadium food in Mexico City is significantly better than in most countries. Tacos, tortas, esquites, and other street food are available inside and around the venues. Beer is sold inside most venues, though sales sometimes stop after a certain point in football matches.
The Bottom Line
Sports in Mexico City aren’t an afterthought or a niche interest. They’re woven into the city’s identity and its weekly rhythms. A Saturday afternoon at the Azteca, a Tuesday night at the boxing, a Sunday morning running down Reforma with ten thousand other people — these experiences connect you to the city in ways that museums and restaurants, excellent as they are, can’t quite replicate. The passion is real. The noise is considerable. And the memories tend to last.