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Article: Will San Diego Padres Maintain Special Commitment to Latinos?
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- March 21, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Leonel Sanchez, The San Diego Union-Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 21--When John Moores purchased the San Diego Padres in 1994, the baseball club began courting Mexican fans like never before.
The Padres played historic games in Mexico, opened Major League Baseball's first store there, organized bus trips for Baja California fans to ball games, televised more games in Spanish, donated to charities and built good will in a market they had long ignored.
Their strategy paid off. Annual Latino fan attendance rose from 50,000 in the early 1990s to 600,000 in 2001, according to the team's most recent Hispanic-marketing report. ...