Show me the “Money/Dinero” – – The Hispanic Sports Fan – Young, Engaged, Invested and Female

By Ana Ceppi

We all know that sports is a big business, and the leadership at L’Attitude has embraced the growth that comes with sports as a business imperative- so satisfy that need this year’s conference launched its inaugural AVANCE Sports track (Association For The Advancement Of Latino Sports) with athletes, owners and marketers to share the importance of “not just welcoming the community but celebrating and uplifting them”.  Every Sport was well represented by athletes or owners of MBL, NFL, NHL, NBA, ESPN with mainstage reserved for Diana Flores, NFL Flag Football Ambassador and Karl-Anthony Towns, NBA All Star Minnesota Timberwolves.

(from Left to right: MJ Acosta-Ruiz, Television Host and Sportscaster ESPN; Diana Flores Flag Football Ambassador NFL; Marissa Solis, SVP Global Brand and Consumer Marketing NFL and Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner)

The 3 takeaways:

• Untapped Latino Fans are poised to account for $1 out of every incremental $3 spent on US Sports by 2050. Economics of Sports Data shared by Stuart Campbell, Partner Bain & Company 
• Authenticity is key: For ESPN it is “the power of understanding our audience and the power our audience has in connecting in such an authentic and real way… we see our fans, our sportscasters, the athletes, and their stories are rich with culture” said Jimmy Pitaro Chairman ESPN.
• Immediate Consumer Engagement and Conversion: Diana Flores, NFL Flag Football ambassador shared that after the 2022 Spanish Language Women’s Flag Football Superbowl spot where she was the principal, there was a 50% increase in girl participation in flag football, the sport will be part of the Olympics in 2028, and NFL aim to sanction flag as a high school sport in all 50 states by 2028.

For the athletes the representation is personal and a call to reflect on their own journeys, as varied as the Latino Diaspora in the USA, but all with a foundation of honoring their impact on the sports and culture. Insights shared during the conference…

• Sports representation: Latinos athletes are representing as professionals, as athletes and as cultural ambassadors. They are a triple marketing lever. Karl-Anthony Towns, NBA All Star Minnesota Timberwolves spoke about his untraditional journey, playing in Dominical Republic to learn the game from all angles and types before coming to the NBA. For Mr. Towns, “across different regions we can leverage [our] professional athletes voice as an athlete or a celebrity or role model… being a role model in this way it is its own marketing model”.
• Cross-border Fans: A weekend after the NFL game in Brazil, Marissa Solis, as the marketing lead for the NFL spoke about the cross-border representation, and pride is real and what that means to broaden the definition of Latinidad. Solis said: “we are showcasing these high performing players (Isaiah Pacheco, Kyle Cayo Santos) back to their home countries to talk about what football is, to help grassroots efforts and little kids develop into the next generation of NFL player, sharing stories that are spreading all over the world”.
• Super Fanaticos of sports: The Latino Sports fan self-identify as “avid fan (40%), consumes 65% more sports content than other groups. They purchase sports merch (75%), and they are 2x more likely to attend a sports event. Despite heavy transactional engagement, 47% of Latinos feel underrepresented and under engaged in sports.

Sports and Media brands know the value of the Latino sports fans…. need one remember the year we watched the NFL and the World Cup back-to-back to each other for a whole week? Or the Superbowl en Espanol? Tapping into Latino Fanaticos is estimated between $25-$35 billion annually to the sports economy by 2050, accounting for 30% of incremental sports spending. Like we said… Show me the Dinero.

About the author:

Ana Ceppi is the founder and CEO of Factivist LLC, a marketer executive who looks to accelerate business growth by creating demand in unseen and elusive marketing opportunities, bringing facts into action. She is the winner of 2023 Crains Notable Hispanic Leaders & executives; 2019’s Imagen Powerful and Influential Latinos in Entertainment and holds 5 Effie’s and a 2024 Gold Lions.