Dodgers Launch Spanish Website losdodgers.com
"The Dodgers have always been committed to our Latino fans and this is just one more way that we are reaching out to Dodger fans who prefer to get their news and information in Spanish," said Greenspun. "We really feel it is important to put our time and resources into improving our Spanish-language website beyond what we and other Major League teams have previously had."
Losdodgers.com will feature original content from local and national columnists as well as translated stories from the club's English-language website, dodgers.com. The new portal will also feature first-person articles from Spanish-speaking members of the Dodger organization, live web chats, Internet polls, blogs, a regularly updated community section, ticket information, biographies on the club's Spanish-language radio broadcasters and an A-Z guide for Dodger Stadium, among numerous other areas of interest.
The Dodgers were believed to be the first Major League team to have a Spanish website when the club's online home launched in April 1996 in four different languages - English, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. In 2001, the club's Internet rights were turned over to Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which has created basic Spanish-language websites for several teams in the league. The Dodgers are among the first to expand the site to its current form.
Continually at the forefront of Hispanic marketing, the Dodgers have hosted the annual Viva los Dodgers festival in each of the past eight seasons, featuring some of the top Latin music acts in the world. The event, which has drawn as many as 10,000 fans the past two seasons, was recognized with the 2005 Gold Reggie Award for promotions in the Multi-Cultural/Ethnic Promotion category.
In addition to the annual festival, the Dodgers host "Dia de los Niños" (Kids Day) on April 23, allowing youngsters to meet Dodger players and get autographs during a pregame festival in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. On June 23, in honor of the 25th anniversary of Fernandomania and the club's 1981 World Championship, the Dodgers will be giving away a bobblehead featuring the likeness of former pitching great and current Spanish-language broadcaster, Fernando Valenzuela.
According to leading market research firm Scarborough Research, the Dodgers have increased their Latino audience significantly over the past four years - it has grown from 32 percent in 2001 to more than 42 percent in 2005. The Dodgers were one of the first clubs in Major League history to broadcast their games in Spanish when they did so in 1958, and as many as eight teams have now followed suit. Recently, the team signed Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrin to a five-year extension that will keep him in the Dodger radio booth through 2011.
A TIME magazine poll in 2005 showed that 14 percent of the United States is of Hispanic heritage, with 58 percent of those people of Mexican descent. On the Dodgers' current 40-man roster, 38 percent are of Hispanic descent, including two Venezuelans, seven Dominicans, one Mexican, one Cuban, one Panamanian and three Puerto Ricans.