Will Latinos Buy Mark Sanchez? Marketers Hope So.
8 May 2009, 9:45 AM. By Alex Alvarez
The Jets hope that rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez will attract Latino fans to the game of footaball and to the Jets in particular. Why? Because he’s Latino.
The unique problems that come with marketing Sanchez bring up questions of what it is, exactly, that makes Latino consumers - or potential Latino consumers - buy into a product or concept or franchise. Do Sanchez’s Mexican roots make him enough of a draw? By being a third generation Mexican who only recently learned Spanish, is Sanchez Mexican “enough?” And does it make any difference that he’s Mexican-American in a state heavily populated by Dominicans and Puerto Ricans?
Adam Jacobson, associate editor of Hispanic Sports Business, believes that while Sanchez’s ethnicity might bring national attention to the Jets, it won’t necessarily bring the team new Latino fans in and of itself:
[T]he fact that Sanchez is Mexican-American doesn’t mean that the Jets are now the default Latino team. In Mexico, the Jets would have little if any fan interest. The NFL fan in Mexico City roots for the Cowboys, Steelers, Raiders or Dolphins thanks to the availability of those teams’ games in Mexico in the 1970s.
And if any NFL fan roots for a team because they have a Mexican, or Australian, or Filipino on the squad, they are an odd football fan. Most fans I know root for a team because of local roots, tradition, quality and passion. If the Dolphins went out and got a big Hispanic player, that wouldn’t make a bit of difference to the thousands of Latino fans in South Florida that have cheered on the team for years.
And it’s true - while we often discuss athletes like Alex Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Oscar de la Hoya for the silly shit they pull off the field and out of the ring, their appeal exists beyond readers of snarky Latino blogs. They’re popular because they’re good and because they belong to brands that mean something, that have a history and something of a default fan base that will stick with them.
Something that hasn’t been discussed in real depth where Mark Sanchez is concerned - and, indeed, with A-Rod or Ronaldo or de la Hoya back before he was releasing albums and showing off his gams - is what role the fact that he is super freaking hot will play in drawing fans to the game and to the Jets. After all, raging heterosexual women can be and are rabid football fans, and a good-looking face doesn’t exactly seem to hurt with drawing crowds of straight men either who are least curious as to how this young pretty boy will play out.
Additionally, marketing Sanchez not only as a player, but as a specifically Latino player, will also require some effort on Sanchez’s part, perhaps to “prove” his identity to those who are either wary of his third generation status, or who want to see how we will “play the part:”
Fans gravitated to Mark Sanchez, wearing serapes and homemade T-shirts with ¡Viva Sanchez! stretched across their chests. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, USC’s home field, became one big Latino festival complete with well-wishers chanting for their newest hero.
“The fans were just wild for him,” said Nick Sanchez, a former quarterback at Yale. “The Hispanic community had somebody to root for in a position where they rarely have. He embraced it. He was playing for everybody … the whole city. It wasn’t just one community. But he was really grateful for that and tried to honor them in return.”
But is that enough?
Is anyone out there rooting for Sanchez? …Why?
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I too wondered whether Nuyoricans would celebrate the SoCal Mexican Sanchez, but I am totally psyched for him and I feel like he could probably make some hard cash pitching products in Mexico. Successful quarterbacks in the NFL have traditionally been BradyManningElwayWhite and even though Sanchez is hot as balls and not from the barrio, it’s nice to have another example of a Latino team leader. Let’s hope he doesn’t fuck it up.
Is that what happened with the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Romo?
I’m sorry, but I don’t know where to even begin w/ this post full of albeit interesting questions but ultimately half-baked ideas, so I’ll settle w/ the most offensive: Mark Sanchez has to “‘prove’ his identity to those who are…wary of his third generation status.” WTF? Prove to who exactly? East Coast writers with no inkling of a complex and big brown world outside of 212 or 718? Will present day immigrant’s grandchildren somehow NOT be Latino? Cultural identity is fluid. Rigid standards of so-called authenticity are so boring.
Reading comprehension: Get some.
If you read through the article, you see that these are concerned voiced by the people whose job it is to market Mark Sanchez. You hurt your own argument with the idea that “East Coast writers” can’t grasp that Sanchez shouldn’t have to prove his “Latinosity” to anyone. As an East Coast Latino, I have to say: Man, relax. And read.
Yeah, the way Latinos are treated in the media sucks. Don’t bash those who are trying to call the mainstream out on their b.s.
Latino?? this mofo cant even speak spanish correctly, have you heard him get interviewed by spanish news anchors?….
I don’t know what numbers the NFL is looking at, but down here in Texas, when it comes to high school football, a good chunk of the names on the field are Hispanic. Maybe it’s just where I live in the state. I don’t know. But I do know that the ones I see most often make it to play college ball are the ones that more often want to hit someone, not so much the throwing and catching position players. I always wondered why there were so few dudes who wanted to go hit someone else - but I’m a dork for defensive players anyway. Mmm… lower body strength…
I also finished reading Friday Night Lights recently (so good, really, especially if you participated in any kind of high school football related function and enjoyed it). And Chavez was totally my fave character in the book.
Also, if we’re looking at fandom, according to more redneck or bull-headed anti-Cowboys fans I’ve met in my life (since, you see, I was born in Dallas and love my Cowboys - despite my unmitigated hatred for Jerry Jones - and as such, have to deal with the fact that most of the US hates them), they tell me that the Cowboys are not “America’s Team”, but are instead “South America’s Team”. To which, they usually have a swift, “What the hell is THAT supposed to mean??” from me, since they tend to mean it as an insult, and I’m wondering which side they’re implying should be insulted.
But, I’m just relaying what I’ve been told by others… that they tend to believe the southern half of this hemisphere is pretty big into the ‘Boys.