The National Hockey League isn’t particularly well known for racial and ethnic diversity among its players, staff, or fans. Bringing aboard one person doesn’t shift these longstanding demographic realities. Nevertheless, the selection of Xavier Gutierrez to lead the Arizona Coyotes three years ago is still significant because he remains the only team president who is Latino. In fact, he was first-ever in the League’s history.
The underrepresentation of Latinos and other executive-level leaders of color isn’t a problem just in the NHL. When he was named president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves in May 2019, Gersson Rosas became the highest-ranking Latino executive in the NBA. He was fired two years later, leaving no Latino representation among NBA team presidents. According to Major League Baseball data, Latinos comprised 30.2% of players on Opening Day 2023. Yet, none of the 30 teams have Latino CEOs. The NFL also has none. Across these four major sports, Gutierrez is in a league of his own.
“Latinos represent a $21 billion sports marketplace and the fastest-growing demographic of fans, so every league should be paying close attention to these underlying trends,” Gutierrez notes. “It’s critical for diverse voices to have a seat at the table, impacting a broader array of decisions through their unique perspectives and personal histories.”
In professional sports, people of color remain severely underrepresented not only at the presidential table, but also in other executive-level leadership roles, in coaching positions, and in ownership.
In an interview for Rolling Stone last year, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores told me that increasing diversity among team owners is most essential to fixing the NFL’s racial mismatch problem. At the time, only one of the Leagues 32 teams had a Black head coach, despite Black men comprising nearly 70% of players. Ownership seems to have played a critical role in Gutierrez’s selection.
Alex Meruelo, a Cuban American billionaire, became the majority owner, chairman, and governor of the Coyotes in 2019, one year prior to Gutierrez being named CEO. “I’m honored to be the only Latino leading a major American sports franchise, working alongside the only Latino owner in NHL history, but I’m hopeful we’ll be in good company with many others quite soon,” Gutierrez says.
Because he spent three decades in an array of private equity, real estate, law, and finance roles, Gutierrez admits that he never expected to be leading a hockey team in the desert. His personal background also makes a presidency in an overwhelmingly white sport both noteworthy and unusual.
He was born in Mexico and grew up in San José, California. His parents didn’t attend college, but Gutierrez earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford. He never played on a college or professional hockey team. Despite his hockey inexperience, Gutierrez recognizes the power of sports to bring people together in a world that he characterizes as increasingly bifurcated and divisive.
“Wayne Gretzky, known simply to hockey fans as ‘The Great One,’ famously said the key to success is to go to where the puck is going, not where it’s been,” Gutierrez adds. “The NHL has been innovative and intentional in recognizing the puck is heading towards an increasingly multicultural world.”
Better reflecting the ethnic diversity of America and increasing Latino representation in every aspect of the sport requires the NHL to go beyond one Latino owner who hires one Latino president to lead just one of the League’s 32 teams. According to Gutierrez, “Latino youth sports fandom has increased 22% over the past decade, and the overall Latino fanbase is projected to grow 85% by 2040.” Hence, he calls for owners and executives across professional sports leagues (including, but not limited to his own) to strategically pursue the business imperative.
But it isn’t just about increasing revenues. Gutierrez also calls for more deliberate efforts to create inclusive work environments for Latino professionals in sports and inclusive engagement experiences for fans.
“Rather than activating only during Hispanic Heritage Month or during cultural nights, it’s important to be consistent and purposeful year round,” he insists. “Fans and customers take note of those who engage only in episodic or event-driven ways, and conversely reward those who embrace their community all year, from leadership down to the entire organization.” Gutierrez cautions against stereotypes as teams and leagues pursue ways to be more culturally responsive. He urges professional sports organizations to better understand more about the linguistic and generational diversity within Latino communities, their engagement in digital environments, and what would make that particular sport more culturally appealing to them.
Gutierrez’s ideas for change are not only important for fan diversification, but also for the recruitment of extraordinarily accomplished executives of color who, like him, could be convinced to bring their business talents to C-suite positions within teams and leagues. The responsibility for this ought not rest entirely or disproportionately on the few Latinos and other people of color who currently occupy leadership roles across professional sports – white participation and investment also are vital.
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