Hockey’s longstanding hurdle of marketing the game to minorities is nothing new; it’s one of the reasons why the National Hockey League created Hockey Is For Everyone, an initiative to promote hockey throughout marginalized communities. However, even with this initiative, one group that often gets overlooked by the league and some teams is the Latino fan.
According to the 2017 Census Bureau, the Latino demographic represents 18.1 percent of the United States, which makes them the largest minority group and the second largest demographic in the country. Tying it back to the NHL, the league has franchises in or near cities with a significant Latino populations, such as San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver, New York and New Jersey.