Pachuca's officials are meeting with the mayors of Mesa and Tolleson and probably Gov. Janet Napolitano today to discuss bringing the Valley its first professional outdoor soccer team, a United Soccer Leagues First Division club.

San Antonio and San Francisco also are in the running for the Pachuca team, but a local group that led the effort to bring Pachuca to the Valley said the Valley is the favorite to land the team.

"I can't believe there is another place that is better suited for the vision of their (Pachuca) brand," said Stuart Starky, whose business plan helped Pachuca consider the Valley.

Starky, a former businessman and current Valley teacher, and his group contacted Pachuca officials in February to see whether they were interested in expanding to the U.S., local accountant Adrian Quintero said.

Quintero, Starky, former Arizona Sahuaros coach Manny Arias and Jorge Kimzin, who runs a local soccer school, are behind the latest effort to bring professional soccer to the Valley.

"Five years ago the possibility of luring a pro Mexican club to the U.S. wouldn't have happened, because Mexican teams didn't believe that the U.S. was committed to soccer," Quintero said. "But that's beginning to change."

Major League Soccer has become the home of a Mexican expansion team, Chivas USA.

Pachuca was interested in joining MLS, but the organization's leaders now believe it's more feasible to join the USL first, Starky said. Pachuca's ambitious plan is to eventually join MLS, build an indoor, soccer-specific facility in the Valley - if the organization docks here - and build a youth soccer academy that mirrors the efforts of Pachuca's academy in Mexico.

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