Minor League Baseball reveals Mariachis de Nuevo México (Albuquerque Isotopes) as winner of its Copa de la Diversión season-long event series competition

LAS VEGAS -- Minor League Baseball™ (MiLB™) today announced the Mariachis de Nuevo México (Albuquerque Isotopes) was selected as the winner of MiLB's inaugural Copa de la Diversión™ (Fun Cup™) event series. Albuquerque, who adopted the moniker Mariachis de Nuevo México for the Latinx-focused event series, won the vote from MiLB's new Latinx Advisory Committee comprised of leaders in multicultural academia, media and marketing. The announcement was made this morning at the Opening Session of the Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas.

The cornerstone of MiLB's Es Divertido Ser Un Fan® (It's Fun to be A Fan®) Hispanic/Latinx fan engagement initiative, Copa de la Diversión ("Copa") established an innovative new platform authentically connecting MiLB teams with their diverse communities, embracing the culture and values that resonate most with Hispanics/Latinx nationwide. Thirty-three teams adopted culturally-relevant on-field personas and integrated more local flavor into their gameday experiences for designated games.
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MiLB's Latinx Advisory Committee was tasked to select the winner based on the team that best achieved the primary objectives of the Copa event series: increasing awareness, authentic engagements and attendance with U.S. Hispanics/Latinx in its local community; embracing U.S. Hispanic/Latinx community and culture that is passionate about baseball, family and fun by updating its ballpark experience to match the values this specific fan segment cherishes most; creating and embracing culturally-relevant on-field personas that authentically connect the team with its local U.S. Hispanic/Latinx community; and amplifying MiLB's continuous effort to diversify the game and business of baseball nationwide.

The Mariachis de Nuevo México demonstrated a dominant performance throughout the Copa event series by:

• • Investing the most marketing dollars into its Copa-specific campaign amongst all participating Copa teams;
• • Setting a single-game attendance record (16,975) for its first-ever Mariachis game on May 5, 2018;
• • Leading all Copa-participating teams in most attendees gained per game, averaging 5,000 more attendees each Copa game compared to similar dates in 2017;
• • Partnering with the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce and raising more than $7,500 for the Chamber's Education Excellence Scholarship Program;
• • Netting the largest net revenue gain from licensed product sales; and
• • Generating the most commercial partnership revenue based solely on Copa programming

The other Copa finalists were: Monarcas de Eugene (Eugene Emeralds), Cucuys de San Bernardino (Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino), Cielo Azul de Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City Dodgers) and the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio (San Antonio Missions), as was announced in a press release last week.
"All 33 participating teams fully embraced the Copa de la Diversión initiative, authentically engaging their local Latinx communities in a transformative, relevant and fun new way," said Kurt Hunzeker, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Research for Minor League Baseball. "Having to select a single winner from a list of worthy candidates was a difficult task for our Advisory Committee, but it was impossible to ignore how much the Albuquerque community embraced the Mariachis' mission and ballpark experience all season long."
In September, Minor League Baseball announced it is expanding Copa de la Diversión for the 2019 season to include 72 teams and more than 350 Copa-designated games. The new Copa identities will be unveiled in March 2019.
Minor League Baseball, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, is the governing body for all professional baseball teams in the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic that are affiliated with Major League Baseball^® clubs through their farm systems. Fans are coming out in unprecedented numbers to this one-of-a-kind experience that can only be found at Minor League Baseball ballparks. In 2017, Minor League Baseball attracted 41.8 million fans to its ballparks to see the future stars of the sport hone their skills. From the electricity in the stands to the excitement on the field, Minor League Baseball has provided affordable family-friendly entertainment to people of all ages since its founding in 1901. For more information visit MiLB.com.
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