Xavier Gutierrez, CEO of the Arizona Coyotes and CEO of ImpactX Sports activities Group (L), and Pedro Guerrero, CEO of Guerrero Media.
Courtesy: Guerrero Media
When the Nationwide Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes bought its franchise to Utah final month, the league did not simply lose an Arizona-based group — it additionally misplaced its solely lively Latino chief government.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Xavier Gutierrez turned the Arizona group’s CEO in 2019 after Alex Meruelo, a Cuban-American billionaire, purchased the Coyotes a 12 months earlier. Gutierrez had beforehand been a managing director at personal fairness agency Clearlake Capital Group and knew Meruelo for a few decade earlier than changing into the NHL’s first-ever Latino CEO.
It took a Latino proprietor to rent a Latino CEO, Gutierrez defined in an interview, as a result of Hispanics will not be well-represented in management positions in skilled sports activities.
There are 153 main skilled sports activities franchises within the U.S. and Canada throughout the NHL, the Nationwide Soccer League, the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation, Main League Baseball and Main League Soccer.
Gutierrez, who’s technically nonetheless CEO of the Arizona Coyotes despite the fact that the franchise is inactive, says he’s the one non-owner Latino CEO. Jorge Mas, co-owner of the MLS’ Inter Miami CF who can be CEO, makes for 2 Latino CEOs, in response to Gutierrez.
That’s one thing Gutierrez vows to vary. He’s a part of the founding group behind Latinos in Sports activities, a platform devoted to bringing collectively Latinos and non-Latinos in skilled sports activities, media and advertising and marketing to showcase Latino expertise in management positions. CNBC is the official media companion of Latinos in Sports activities.
“The outcomes speaks for themselves that you do not have that management at this time,” Gutierrez mentioned. “You have a look at the commissioners and their places of work which can be counting on Latino shoppers to be the viewers, the ticket patrons, the jersey patrons. I believe it’s essential to have Latino expertise in these seats. Our aim is simply to say, ‘Pay attention, this is not since you’re unhealthy folks. That is not it in any respect. It is as a result of perhaps you have not met the cohorts that exist.'”
Gutierrez and Pedro Antonio Guerrero, the CEO of government development firm Guerrero Media, launched Latinos in Sports activities at an occasion in Miami final week.
Vianni Lubus, head of viewers and engagement at Guerrero Media, and Mike Valdes-Fauli, chief working officer at Chemistry Cultura, a digital promoting agency centered on Latinos within the U.S., are additionally concerned with the platform.
The 4 executives share a aim to extend U.S. Hispanic illustration all through management roles in sports activities. José Feliciano, the co-founder of Clearlake Capital and co-owner of the Premier League’s Chelsea Soccer Membership, additionally spoke finally week’s Miami occasion to advertise extra Latino possession in sports activities.
José E. Feliciano speaks onstage in the course of the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York Metropolis on Dec. 9, 2021.
Slaven Vlasic | Getty Photos
“My fervent hope is that we make extra progress on the possession entrance,” Feliciano mentioned. “Resolution-makers in seats of affect are beginning to acknowledge that Latinos can and must be house owners in each sense of the phrase.”
The aim of Latinos in Sports activities is to be the go-to place to foster a tradition of Hispanic development within the business of sports activities, Gutierrez mentioned. The executives hope to show the platform right into a enterprise that focuses on funding in Hispanic-founded startups, conducting analysis on U.S. Hispanic tendencies and bringing collectively each Latino and non-Latino sports activities leaders for networking.
“You do offers with folks ,” Gutierrez mentioned. “It is actually going to be a spot for commerce, for expertise acquisition, for dialog, knowledge and insights.”
The group additionally hopes to push Latino sports activities executives to make extra acutely aware choices about interesting to Latino audiences.
Warner Bros. Discovery debuted another broadcast throughout final 12 months’s MLB playoffs referred to as “Peloteros,” which featured former and present Latino baseball gamers chatting with a Hispanic viewers. The published needed to be in English as a result of Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t have the Spanish-language broadcast rights.
Having extra Latino executives making content material choices will help attract audiences which have largely been ignored, mentioned Luis Silberwasser, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports activities.
“It was a great instance of what we’re striving to do when it comes to diversifying content material,” mentioned Silberwasser. “You want range of voice within the manufacturing group to provide you with this.”
It’s important for Latinos in Sports activities to attach Latinos with non-Latinos, Gutierrez mentioned, as a result of non-Latinos are overwhelmingly in positions of management at this time.
The group’s subsequent occasion might be on the Barclays Heart in Brooklyn, New York, in September in the course of the U.S. Open tennis event. Gutierrez and Guerrero selected that occasion particularly as a result of it historically appeals to white People.
“It is vital to have non-Latino decision-makers within the room,” Gutierrez mentioned.
“Latinos want to attach with one another to construct partnerships like this one in an effort to construct our desk,” Guerrero mentioned. “On the finish of the day, it is the precedence of numerous Latinos in positions of energy like Xavier [Gutierrez]. The important thing for us is to develop our inhabitants dimension.”
