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Hispanics seen as key players in expanding Diamondbacks fan base

The Boston Red Sox played Oakland in Japan this week — an unusual opening day for Major League Baseball. As the season starts, Knowledge@W. P. Carey sat in on a discussion of the sports business between three Diamondbacks front office officials who visited the W. P. Carey School of Business recently.In 2004, the Arizona Diamondbacks were picked by some media outlets to win the National League West division; instead they lost 111 games, the most by a National League team in 39 years. The team has bounced back from 2004, both on and off the field, but they are still attracting fewer fans. The Diamondbacks have focused their attention on several areas to solidify and broaden the fan base, and one of the key areas is tapping into the Hispanic market, which is growing even faster than the population as a whole in Arizona.

2008-03-26

The Arizona Diamondbacks entered the 2004 major league season as contenders but were quickly exposed as pretenders. Picked by some media outlets to win the National League West division, they instead lost 111 games, the most by a National League team in 39 years. The picture was dark off the field as well — the franchise was bleeding money and attendance was declining.

A rebuilding process began that season in the front office as well as on the field. Ken Kendrick replaced Jerry Colangelo, the team's founder, as managing general partner, and Kendrick brought in a new front office team. After three seasons, the Diamondbacks were back in the playoffs, and the business end has picked up as well. Although the team doesn't reveal financial figures, Kendrick has said the team was profitable each of the past three seasons.

But there's one area where the Diamondbacks are still recovering — attendance. Despite winning the division title for the first time in five seasons, attendance still lagged the 2004 season. The club drew 2.5 million fans in 2004 and 2.3 million in 2007. Still, the Diamondbacks' attendance is on the upswing and the organization feels it is making strides toward an eventual goal of drawing 3 million per season — even if the team falters in the standings.

The Diamondbacks have focused their attention on several areas to solidify and broaden the fan base, according to three front office officials — President Derrick Hall, CFO Tom Harris and Senior Vice President of Community Affairs and Ticketing Operations Diane Aguilar — who visited the W. P. Carey School of Business recently. One of the key areas is doing a better job marketing to Hispanics, Hall told the students. "That's our biggest upside," he said.

Growing market

Arizona's population grew an estimated 20.1 percent from 2000 to 2006; the Hispanic population grew 39 percent during that period, the Pew Hispanic Center reported. In the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Hispanic population grew 261 percent between 1980 and 2000. Hispanics are "great, loyal fans," Hall said, and they love baseball. "For us, we have to tap that resource, and I don't think we did that great a job in the past — as most sports teams will tell you," he added.

Hall grew up in the Los Angeles area and spent parts of 12 seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, working his way from running the Vero Beach, Fla. farm team, in the low minors, to senior vice president of communications. "Being from Los Angeles, that Hispanic fan base is your bread and butter," he said. Growing that fan base was easier for the Dodgers, he said, because of a Mexican left-handed pitcher named Fernando Valenzuela, who came up to the team in 1980.

Valenzuela was successful early, winning the first eight decisions of his rookie season, and his popularity with fans — particularly those of Mexican descent — became known as "Fernandomania." (In both Los Angeles and Arizona the Hispanic population is largely of Mexican origin.) The Diamondbacks can't count on the next Fernando Valenzuela to draw Hispanic fans. "For us here it's a matter of first reaching to the fans and saying, you're going to be welcome here and you're going to be comfortable here," Hall said.

"We saw that in L.A., too. So how do you make it comfortable, particularly for Spanish-speaking fans? You have to have bilingual signs. You have to have bilingual employees." Aguilar said she is always on the lookout for Spanish-speaking employees, even for part-time positions.

"We want to have someone in the ticket booth who speaks Spanish," she said. "So if they're not comfortable communicating in English, there is someone they can speak with. We try to find Spanish-speaking operators and tour guides. "They're hard to keep because they are in high demand," she said.

Spanish Media

Hall said the team uses Hispanic media to reach the fan base with special promotions, working with Univision and Spanish language newspapers such as La Voz and TV y Mas. The team creates content for a Diamondbacks section and the newspapers sell the advertising. The Diamondbacks broadcast all 162 regular season games on radio in Spanish.

They also offer the largest Spanish TV package in Major League Baseball with 50 games shown on a Phoenix UHF channel. The team buys the airtime, then sells advertising. It's a money-loser, Harris said, but "we look at it as a three-hour commercial for our product." The Diamondbacks also stage postgame concerts with popular Hispanic bands. "We've done that the past two seasons — huge crowds," Hall said.

The team always plays two exhibition games at Chase Field right before the start of the regular season — sort of a dry run for the game-day staff. This year the Diamondbacks will play the second game against Monterrey, the Mexican League champion. They also scheduled an exhibition game in March against the Chicago White Sox in Hermosillo, Mexico, where the Diamondbacks have a ticket outlet.

The team draws some fans from Mexico. Hall said one mistake that's often made by baseball teams is to promote only Hispanic players to the Hispanic fans. Although they might have special connection to certain players, Hispanic fans are committed to the entire team. "We found that in L.A., too," Hall said. "They weren't just fans of Raul Mondesi. They were fans of Eric Karos."

Gonzo's exit

Hispanics and non-Hispanics who followed the Diamondbacks were fans of Luis Gonzalez. "Gonzo" was the team's best offensive player in the early years of the franchise and active in the community. He had the game-winning hit in the deciding game of the 2001 World Series. Nationally, the team's star pitchers, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, were always regarded as bigger names than Gonzalez — but not in Arizona.

The Diamondbacks announced in late 2006 that Gonzo would not be back after the season ended. As expected there was some backlash. "The single toughest decision the franchise has had to make was what to do with Luis Gonzalez," Hall said. The team wanted to give some of its younger players an opportunity to play, he said. "[Gonzales] just didn't fit with where we were going, with our model," Hall said.

More sophisticated fans understood what the team faced. "The casual fans who just knew Gonzo for what he did in the community or from hearing him on radio shows were like 'How can you get rid of him?'" Hall said. "It's never an easy decision," Hall said. "Had he played for us last year, we would have faced the same decision this year."

Harris said it was a good opportunity for Gonzalez, who signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers, reportedly for $7.5 million. "He was able to go out to the 29 other teams and find the best deal he could financially," Harris said. "He thought he still could play everyday. We did, too. We just thought we had better options." Fortunately for ownership, the team won last season.

At the gate

Even though the team soared in the standings, it still lagged in attendance — at least in the expectations of the local newspapers. The franchise debuted with strong attendance, drawing 3.6 million in its initial season. But from 1999 to 2005, the team's attendance declined each season, and by 2005, the attendance barely topped 2 million. Only one season saw an uptick: 2002, the season after the Diamondbacks won the World Series.

Baseball teams usually see their attendance spike the season following a World Series title or appearance. But the team has actually turned the trend around. Attendance improved slightly in 2006 and in 2007, the attendance ran ahead of team projections. Because of that, the club donated $5 from every walk-up ticket sold during the final 20 games of the season to its charitable foundation, which gave $622,880 to the local United Way.

The long term goal, Hall said, is to get to the point where the franchise can draw 3 million a season even in less-than-stellar times. It can be done. The Dodgers have drawn 3 million fans in 11 of the past 12 seasons. "People feel good about our organization," Hall said. "How do we lose a game in the late innings, say 1-0, and fans walk out and say, 'I can't wait to come back.' After a loss! That's all our responsibility — to make sure the experience at the ballpark is top notch."

Part of the challenge in a highly transient area is to convert fans from the teams they left behind into Diamondbacks fans. "We're heading into that second generation of fans because we're only 10 years old," Hall said. "Historically this market was Cubs, Giants, Dodgers because of spring training and people moving, etc."

That's beginning to change, Hall said. "If you walk the concourse [at Chase Field] when the Dodgers are in town or the Cubs are in town, what you see — and this is a telling sign — is the adults may be wearing a Cubs jersey and a Cubs hat, but they're holding hands with a kid who's wearing D-backs gear."

Bottom Line:

• The Arizona Diamondbacks have bounced back from 2004 both on and off the field, but they are still attracting fewer fans.
• The team hopes to tap into the Hispanic market, which is growing even faster than the population as a whole in Arizona.
• The Diamondbacks try to make Hispanics feel welcome with special promotions, with Spanish signage at the park and by hiring bilingual staff.
• The team is winning over a market where out-of-town teams have had — and still have — large followings.

Marketing