Alex Meruelo the new owner of the Arizona Coyotes

[CBJ goalie]

Musta gotten confused with Auston Matthews - easy to do: Hispanic, same initials, etc.

 

[TheLegend]

Meruelo's not from Arizona. He's of Cuban descent, originally from New York, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Or as he put it.... he was “just another (Hispanic) kid from Brooklyn”.

 

[aqib]

Somewhat accurate if everything builds out. But right now there's growth in all directions.

So in theory, if the arena search goes on for another 2-3 years, is it possible the West Valley grows to the point it would be able to support the Coyotes?

 

[TheLegend]

So in theory, if the arena search goes on for another 2-3 years, is it possible the West Valley grows to the point it would be able to support the Coyotes?

In theory, if it did would it matter to you?

I’m of the theory that I don’t care where in the Phoenix Metro area they play right now. I just want them to put themselves into a good business position for the long term..... and that requires more than one thing.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

So in theory, if the arena search goes on for another 2-3 years, is it possible the West Valley grows to the point it would be able to support the Coyotes?

The West Valley could support the Coyotes now, to be frank. But it'd require the team to do some marketing and outreach where they actually play, and since most of the administration, staff, and players live in the East Valley (not to mention the metro sports reporters), I doubt there's any appetite for it.

The league and the team have decided it won't work in this part of town, and once people make up their mind like that, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if it's going to happen anywhere, it'll be on the other side of town.

 

[aqib]

In theory, if it did would it matter to you?

I’m of the theory that I don’t care where in the Phoenix Metro area they play right now. I just want them to put themselves into a good business position for the long term..... and that requires more than one thing.

I'm just curious. I've never been to Arizona so it doesn't MATTER to me if the team stays or not I just find the business aspect interesting.

 

[TheLegend]

I'm just curious. I've never been to Arizona so it doesn't MATTER to me if the team stays or not I just find the business aspect interesting.

Well the comment history tells me you might be in for a major disappointment on that front.

 

[Llama19]

Arizona Coyotes look to esports to widen fan reach

Source: www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2019/09/01/arizona-coyotes-look-to-esports-to-widen-fan-reach.html

 

[TheLegend]

It’s the second year they’ve held this event.

Good to see Phoenix Business Journal is keeping up with its usual timely pace of reporting the latest trends.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

 

[GuelphStormer]

great news!

 

[canuckfan75]

Good for them

 

[TheLegend]

The beginning of tapping into the Hispanic market....

 

[Llama19]

 

[TheLegend]

For those not used to Spanish....

“Nuestra Manada” = “Our Pack”

Those are the official social media hashtags.

 

[Llama19]

It actually translates to 'Our Herd'...

 

[TheLegend]

Blame Google translate then....

View media item 5983

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Oh, good, now we can start in on Spanish animal collective nouns. Any native Spanish speakers in here wanna step up and tell us what a large collection of various animals are en Espanyol? Would that violate the English only requirements in this forum?

 

[GuelphStormer]

does anyone know what proportion of current ticket buyers are Hispanic? any guesses?

this is an interesting marketing approach and would sure seem to begin to tap into a very large market in the area. it kinda reminds me of how the raptors made quite successful inroads into the diverse ethnicity of the toronto area while for years the leafs seemed content with their less diverse fanbase.

can i ask a dumb question? could targeting an Hispanic base somehow affect the current non-Hispanic fanbase? not that it should, but might some traditional fans resent the team going after new fans? apologies for an insensitive question.

 

[member 157595]

does anyone know what proportion of current ticket buyers are Hispanic? any guesses?

this is an interesting marketing approach and would sure seem to begin to tap into a very large market in the area. it kinda reminds me of how the raptors made quite successful inroads into the diverse ethnicity of the toronto area while for years the leafs seemed content with their less diverse fanbase.

can i ask a dumb question? could targeting an Hispanic base somehow affect the current non-Hispanic fanbase? not that it should, but might some traditional fans resent the team going after new fans? apologies for an insensitive question.

If a non-Hispanic gets resentful for a team trying to expand its current audience to include a non-traditional Hispanic customer base they're the ones with the problem in the first place.

 

[zetajerk]

If a non-Hispanic gets resentful for a team trying to expand its current audience to include a non-traditional Hispanic customer base they're the ones with the problem in the first place.

That can be applied to the Coyotes franchise or expansion as a whole.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

does anyone know what proportion of current ticket buyers are Hispanic? any guesses?

I don't have the statistics - the only people who do are the Coyotes and they haven't historically been sanguine about sharing them - but my eye test at games would say about 15% or so. There's a lot of work to be done, for sure.

can i ask a dumb question? could targeting an Hispanic base somehow affect the current non-Hispanic fanbase? not that it should, but might some traditional fans resent the team going after new fans? apologies for an insensitive question.

It's not a dumb question at all, because this, after all, is Arizona - one of the nation's hotbeds for anti-Hispanic sentiment even though there is a significant population here. The discussion about it could easily stray into politics and I want to avoid that - but honestly, the people who might be offended are better off not being around the team. The Diamondbacks have leaned heavily on the "Los D'Backs" campaign and it hasn't seemed to have hurt their attendance; D'Backs games tend to have a really diverse and friendly crowd, which I personally love. But having said that, IMO it hasn't been a huge consistent boost either, because whether Caucasian or Hispanic, people tend to show up when the team doesn't suck, and they tend to stay home if they do.

TL;DR - winning seems to transcend everything else in Arizona.

 

[LadyStanley]

As posted in other thread, the entire league is starting Spanish language coverage this season.

A few teams (San Jose, Vegas, among others) already have Spanish pxp (at least for radio, sometimes SAP).

 

[Ernie]

Seems like a smart bet by the league to try to grow the game - obviously the Spanish speaking population in the US is a bit of an untapped demographic, but Spanish is also the 2nd most common native language on the planet after Mandarin Chinese.

For instance, Mexico City has a population of 20 million, and while a lot of people live in poverty there are still millions that could afford an NHL ticket. Could an NHL franchise work there?

 

[XX]

can i ask a dumb question? could targeting an Hispanic base somehow affect the current non-Hispanic fanbase? not that it should, but might some traditional fans resent the team going after new fans? apologies for an insensitive question.

There are racists in every group, even hockey fans. Best to just ignore them.