Arizona Coyotes’ CEO Xavier Gutierrez (left) and Pedro Guerrero, the CEO of Guerrero Media.
With the sale of the Arizona Coyotes franchise to Utah last month by National Hockey League, not only did it loose an Arizona based team but also its only active Latino executive.
He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and became a player for Arizona in 2019 after Cuban-American billionaire Alex Meruelo acquired the coyotes starting one year ago. Team’s CEO Gutierrez had known Meruelo for about ten years prior to becoming NHL first Latino executive while previously served as managing director at private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group.
Gutierrez stated during an interview that only Latina owners hire CEO Latinos since they are under-represented in leadership positions within professional sports.
According to this definition, there are 153 major league professional sports teams in America and Canada including NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS.
Gutierrez is still technically considered the Coyotes’ CEO although their team is no longer active but he said that he is the only non-owner Latino CEO. However Gutierrez said that Jorge Mas who is co-owner and chief executive officer (CEO) of Inter Miami FC of Major League Soccer should be considered two Latino CEOs.
Because of this Gutierrez promised to do something about it; He is part of a founding member group called Latinos in Sports which intends to bring Latinos together with non-Latinos across professional sport, media and marketing so as to highlight Latin talent in leadership positions.
“The result speaks for themselves like you didn’t have that kind today,” Gutierrez said. “Look at commissioners’ offices rely on Latin consumers as fans, ticket buyers or jersey buyers. I think you need LatiNos sitting there so when we say it’s just like saying listen it’s not because you’re bad people not at all because you haven’t met those that exist.
Gutierrez and Guerrero Media Executive Advancement Firm CEO Pedro Antonio Guerrero discussed Latino sports at a Miami event last week.
The platform also involves Vianni Lubus, the head of audience and engagement for Guerrero Media as well as Mike Valdes-Fauli who is the Chief Operating Officer of Chemistry Cultura, a digital marketing agency with focus on US Hispanics.
These four executives are united by the goal of increasing representation of Hispanics in the US in leadership positions within sport. José Feliciano, a Premier League Chelsea football club co-owner and Clearlake Capital’s co-founder spoke at last weeks’ Miami event advocating for greater participation of Latinos in sports.
Jose E. Feliciano speaks during 2021 RFK Wave Of Hope Award Gala For Human Rights on December 9, 2021 in New York City.
“On the ownership front I fervently hope we make more progress,” said Feliciano. “Increasingly influential policy makers are starting to acknowledge that Latinos can and should be owners.”
According to Gutierrez Latino Sports aims to be the best place in Hispanic sports industry where progressive culture can be cultivated. Executives plan to convert this into a company which will invests in start-ups founded by Latinos, conducts research regarding U.S. Hispanic trends and networks Hispanic while non-Hispanic sports leaders together .
“You do business with individuals you recognize,” commented Gutierrez. “This really shall be the place for businesses, people search, talk, figures and information.”
The organization is also looking to urge Latino sports leaders to make better choices about how they target the Latino audience.
Warner Bros. Discovery A competing program known as “Peloteros,” featuring current and former Hispanic baseball players addressing a Hispanic audience, debuted during last year’s MLB playoffs. The Warner Bros. Discovery Channel doesn’t have Spanish broadcasting rights so the broadcasts are in English.
Having more Latin America chiefs involved in content making might enable discovery of an unattended market segment,” said Luis Silberwasser, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports
“This is a good illustration of our attempt to change our inventory,” Silberwasser said. “It took a team of diverse voices on this one.”
Non Latinas hold most leading positions today thus Gutierrez says that it is critical for the Latino sports community to connect Latinos with non-Latinos.
Their next event will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York during US Open in September. In particular Gutierrez and Guerrero chose this because they knew that it had a traditional appeal for white Americans.
“Non-Latino decision-makers need to be engaged,” stated Gutierrez.
“To build our table we need such partnerships among Latinos” said Guerrero,” That’s really all I see being important and powerful right now just like Xavier (Gutierrez) mission.” For us key is increasing population size.”
