(bright music) - Good evening and welcome to Horizonte, a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host, Catherine Anaya.

Xavier Gutierrez is the first Latino to be the president of a national hockey league team, the now defunct Arizona Coyotes.

Now that the team has moved on, so has Gutierrez with two new ventures to help elevate Hispanics in the sports industry.

He's the co-founder of Latinos in Sports and the Chairman and CEO of ImpactX Sports Group.

Here are some highlights from a conference that Latinos in Sports held at the US Open last year.

(bright music) - How I ask Latinos in Sports, and on behalf of the entire team, we wanna thank you all for being here.

- We're excited.

I have to tell you, I've been in the sports business for, I don't know, 30 years now, and you've never seen the momentum of both Latinos in sports, and women, Latinas in sports.

- Very important.

- So exciting.

- Joining us now to tell us more about his new ventures is Xavier Gutierrez.

So good to see you.

Finally in person, we meet.

- Great to meet you finally in person.

- Thank you, yes.

- Thank you for having me.

- Well, I'm excited to talk about your two new ventures, but before we get to that, I do wanna talk a little bit about your time with the Arizona Coyotes.

What surprised you the most about the power of sports and business?

Because you didn't come from a sports background, you came from private equity.

- Yeah, well, you know, I often share with people, this experience was everything I thought it would be, and nothing I thought it would be.

Everything I thought it would be is this incredible power of sports to make a difference.

You know, these are community assets.

They are agents for change.

They're agents to really influence and impact the community around you.

And that's really what we leaned into.

That's what I wanted us to be seen as, is we're part of your lives.

We're extending our hands.

We're becoming more than just a sports team or an entertainment offering.

We're really, really part of the community leadership.

What surprised me the most is, you know, I had never been in a business in which everything you do every single day is in the paper.

Every decision that you're making, every transaction that you're doing is very public.

And that was new.

And you know, obviously, we went through a lot of things, both good and bad.

Throughout it all, I really had us focused as this agent for impact and for influencing the community around us for saying, "We're here to be a part of your life."

- And you made a very intentional effort to go out into the Latino community, bring that community to hockey and vice versa.

And describe for me, if you would, what that investment in the Latino community proved in terms of, you know, making this synergy and really just, you know, introducing Latinos to the sport of hockey.

- Sure, well, listen, this was a business imperative.

You know, when we think about who is driving the growth, who are the consumers, we're a consumer business at the end of the day.

We're a live events business.

We're a media business.

It's a consumer-driven business.

And we're sitting here in the middle of Maricopa County where you have 43, 44, 45% of the population is Latino.

And so, as I always share, in my very first meeting with the Board of Governors of the NHL, they asked me, Commissioner Bettman said, "Why don't you share what your business plan is going to be?"

I said, "Well, I don't skate.

I don't know how to skate.

I've never played hockey, but I understand who Wayne Gretzky is."

And the infamous line is, they asked Wayne's dad what makes Wayne so great?

And he said Wayne goes to where the puck is going, not where it's been.

So as a business, where is the puck going in America?

Not just here, but in America.

Young, female, diverse, and in a place like Arizona, that's Latino, tech savvy and purpose-driven.

So for us, we leaned in to where the puck was going as a business.

Not just ancillary to the business plan.

it was the business plan.

We were super serving our fans by, you know, being competitive, being compelling, being accessible.

But we focused on the fans and waiting.

And so for me, it was very important for us to extend our hands to authentically.

So that means every day, not just episodically, not just for Hispanic Heritage Month, to say you need to be a part of everything we're doing because we wanna be a part of your life.

- Well, and as you say so often, Latinos are important to sports.

And that brings me to your next two ventures.

The first one is Latinos in Sports.

It's a multi-strategy platform that taps into the need for diversity, not just at a national, but a global level.

Can you tell me a little bit about how those platforms work?

- Sure, well, you know, I looked up one day and I said, "Am I really the only Latino CEO in 153 teams across the five top men's pro leagues in America?"

And the answer was yes.

And I said, "What happens when I'm not?

What happens when I'm not in this chair?"

I really wanted to ensure that there was more Latinos sitting in the seats of decision-making for these incredibly important businesses.

I mean, as you mentioned, I talk a lot about sports is important, sports are important, Latinos are important to sports.

So we need Latinos in those seats of decision-making.

And so I partnered with my good friend Pedro Guerrero of Guerrero Media, that, you know, put out a Hispanic executive magazine.

And I said, "Let's create a platform that is not just let's get people together, but it's convenings in which we highlight the impact of Latinos to sports.

We create content around the executives that are in sports.

Surprisingly, there are Latinos in sports.

They may not be at the ownership or at the CEO level, but they're throughout the industry.

Let's highlight them.

And also let's create some research.

Let's create some data so that people understand this impact is very broad.

It's not per se, just in soccer.

It's not in Spanish language, entertainment, and media.

It's across the global sports industry.

And finally, let's help people with careers.

Let's help those that are in the business continue to grow so that they are sitting in the CEO chair.

They are sitting in the ownership suite.

But it's also bringing those who might not know that sports is this incredible business.

It's a very broad business.

It's not just what happens on the ice, on the court, on the field.

It is a very comprehensive business.

You think of the valuation increases of, say the NBA, the NBA, right now, the average basketball team is worth more than $4 billion.

That is a very big business.

That's not just a culturally important business.

That is a business for economic activity and a driver of economic development in all of these communities.

- You mentioned the statistics and the information that you've been gathering and mining data and information with regard to sports teams.

And this is information you're able to take to these sports team executives to present to them about what's happening with Latinos in sports.

Can you tell me a little bit about some of the trends that you're seeing with regard to Latinos in sports?

- Sure, so at our last event, which was for the US Open in New York, we commissioned a study by Nielsen, which we wanted a very reputable third party that all the sports teams and leagues read because of the media ratings that they do.

And they had this incredible research that we put out, and you can see it on our website for latinosinsports.com, it's called the Game Changer Report.

And it really showed a couple of things.

Number one, Latinos are young, and we know that, right?

72% of Latino fans are Gen Z or millennial compared to 50% of the general population.

Second, we are passionate and we're passionate about multiple sports.

So when we talked about fandom for the WNBA, when we talked about fandom for the NHL, when we talked about fandom for the NBA, the statistics were off the charts.

Were also not just avid, not just young, but we actually spend on those that support the teams.

The fact that I always go back to, as someone who was trying to create revenue for a team, is that 11% of Latinos are more likely to spend when they see a sponsor of the team that they like.

That is something I can go, to a sponsor.

That's something I can go, to a brand, to a media company and say, "Listen, this is where I'm going.

This is the cohort I'm targeting for my growth.

This is the target you should be going after.

Let's do it together.

Let me be that bridge to that growth cohort."

- Mm-hmm, so let's talk about your second venture.

This is ImpactX Sports Group and you're partnering with investors to grow opportunities beyond just the sports teams.

So tell me about how that collaboration works.

- Sure, well, let's start with the fact that it, and really since I sat in this chair starting in June of 2020, this has become an institutional asset class.

Very large institutional investors, pension funds, endowments, insurance companies through private equity funds are now very much present in sports.

And given that that that's my background, in finance and in private equity, after the Coyotes, you know, experience, I basically took some time off and I started talking to a lot of those private equity funds and saying, "What's your strategy?

What exactly do you want to do?"

And what I saw was an opportunity for a differentiated approach than what they were doing.

I said, "Listen.

If having sat in the chair, there's all of these growth initiatives, there's all of these strategies that I wanted to go after.

But quite frankly, either we didn't have the capital to deploy because we were focused on other things, or I didn't have the bandwidth.

And so the thesis is, let me partner with these investors that want to deploy money into sports, and let me go to teams and leagues and say, 'What are the growth initiatives that you wanna do?

Let us joint venture.

Let us partner.'"

So in essence, let's sit on the same side.

So what does that mean in terms of practicality?

Some of the leagues wanna buy out their youth leagues.

Some of them wanna buy their minor leagues 'cause they're not necessarily run as commercial enterprises and more like player development.

They all want to expand internationally.

So what does that mean?

Possibly facilities that may or may not be arenas or stadiums, or giving them a, you know, stake in the ground in all of these countries so that they can engage those communities year round.

- But what's different here is that they're not only investors, but they're actually having a bigger hand in what they're investing in, right?

- Absolutely, the premise is, is we're not just gonna write a check and say, "Hey, good luck with that."

It's we're going to provide capital and we're gonna be the operating partner.

The reality is most of these teams and leagues, they're focused on keeping the train on the tracks.

There's the next game, the next season, the next campaign.

How do you do these big ideas?

We can be their partner, and it's resonating.

We have several of the leagues, and it just started, right?

I really just launched it last year, really started having conversations with teams and leagues in the fall.

And really the capital is very excited because we're not so much investing in the team.

We're investing into the enterprise, the holding company of these teams.

And that's really, really an untapped market.

This is the most valuable intellectual property in the world.

These marks and logos, everybody knows and recognizes them.

What are the new business opportunities that you can align that intellectual property to?

- So thinking about all of the things that you've learned just in the time that you've been involved in sports from private equity, you have, you know, a number of students now in sports business here at ASU studying sports business, sports as a business.

What would your advice be to the young students who are coming up and, you know, looking at sports as a career beyond just the arenas?

- Yep, well, you know, the first thing I often say is, you know, the worst thing about sports is people focus only on sports.

They need to see these things as these massive business platforms and business opportunities.

These are media companies.

They're technology companies.

They're health and wellness businesses.

They are live events businesses.

So there's all of these touch points that are very large verticals in and of themselves.

So what I try to tell young people is, don't just focus on the day of game, right?

That stadium operations or what have you, those are great, those are important.

What's the growth opportunity?

If I were to give you the Arizona Cardinals marks and logos, what business do you think they should be in?

Where should they be 10 years from now?

Not just having games, but should they be in the health and wellness business?

Should they be in the education business?

Because those are leadership lessons that you can leverage.

Should they be in Mexico with a facility?

The answer is probably yes, by the way, on that one.

The point being is I tell young people, think of sports as a platform that has multiple verticals.

And by the way, learn those, right?

Learn what it means to do transactions across industries, not just within sports.

Sports is a phenomenal industry.

I encourage people to go into it.

I encourage people to come from, whether it's from media or consumer products or from finance and accounting to enter this industry because it is really only beginning.

It's, you know, sort of positioning as an institutional asset class, as more and more capital gets into it, as they look at more new business lines to launch.

I always point out the Dallas Cowboys.

Most valuable team in the world, right?

The Dallas Cowboys made $10 million a year of just touring their practice facility.

- Yes.

- So think about that.

- I've been one of those people.

- Absolutely, of touring their practice facility.

$20 million on catering because you too can eat what the Cowboys eat when you have your corporate event.

So the thesis around that is, this is the brand, this is the intellectual property, how do you monetize it?

And as a young person entering that field, be aware of that, be open to that, and be open fundamentally however.

These are impact enterprises as well.

- And I'm very excited for you.

Thank you so much for sharing your energy and your passion with us here on Horizonte.

So good to see you.

- Great to see you, Catherine.

Thank you so much for having me.

- Congratulations on all your success.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

And that's our show for tonight for Horizonte and Arizona PBS.

I'm Catherine Anaya.

Thanks for joining us.

Have a great night.

(bright music)