• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 28, 2014

Hoy Los Angeles is launching a new weekly newspaper devoted to sports, called Hoy Deportes, Hoy L.A.’s owner, the Los Angeles Times Media Group, announced this week. The publication will also publish digitally with a Web site and mobile channel.
 
The new Spanish-language sports weekly, scheduled to launch March 3, will cover local, national and international sports, including scores, game reports and athlete profiles. No surprise -- fútbol (soccer) will be receiving a lot of attention, especially before and during the 2014 World Cup scheduled for June and July.
 
Editor Alejandro Maciel stated: “Latino-heritage Angelenos rank amongst the world’s most avid sports fans and, with the World Cup about to take to the pitch in Brazil, we felt the time was right to launch Hoy Deportes.”
 
But it’s not just about fútbol; Hispanic sports fans have branched out from traditional favorites like soccer and baseball in recent years to follow other sports, including football, boxing, mixed martial arts,and Nascar.

In 2012, a poll by ESPN Sports found that 25 million U.S. Hispanics identified themselves as NFL fans -- a remarkable proportion, as it’s just about half the U.S. Hispanic population, estimated at 50.8 million.
 
According to TNS data cited by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, in 2007 94% of U.S. Hispanic males identified themselves as sports fans, and 48% considered themselves “avid” sports fans.
 
A number of media companies and advertisers are looking to cash in on Hispanic sports fans. Last year, Fox Deportes Studios launched to produce content around big sporting events, fan experiences at stadiums and arenas and the human interest stories embedded in spectator sports .