MiLB Names Round Rock Chupacabras Winner Of Copa de la Diversion 2025

Minor League Baseball (MiLB) Names Round Rock Chupacabras (Round Rock Express) Winner of Copa de la Diversión in 2025

Oct. 7, 2025 — Minor League Baseball (MiLB) announced the Round Rock Chupacabras (Round Rock Express) were selected as the 2025 winner of MiLB’s season-long event series, Copa de la Diversión.

The award was announced during Minor League Baseball’s Fall Business Summit in Indianapolis.

The cornerstone of MiLB’s Latino 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 U.S. Latinos nationwide. A total of 94 MiLB teams participated in Copa in 2025 – the most in the program’s eight seasons.

In their three games as the Chupacabras, the club saw a 19% increase in attendance over non-Chupacabras games and their five bilingual staff members helped the Chupacabras add hundreds of new Latino fans to the club’s ticketing database.

The club leveraged relationships with local social media influencers and media to promote their Copa nights and build interest among local Latinos. They also partnered with several local Latino organizations, including the Round Rock El Amistad Club, Latinos in Round Rock, Round Rock Ballet Folklorico, Farandula Texas, Mas Cultura, Bidi Bidi Banda, Tambores de Austin, Mariachi Corazon de Tejas, La Murga de Austin, Los Verdes ATX and Taco Palenque.

The Chupacabras also added several new elements to their Copa games this year, including a meet and greet with 2005 Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon and having public address announcements done in Spanish during select innings. The team celebrated the home countries of the Latino players on their roster and other countries represented in the Round Rock community.

“Ever since we began our Copa program in 2018, there’s been an incredible amount of sweat equity and effort put into this program through social media, marketing and sales and promotions, and it’s very humbling to see those efforts be rewarded with an award like this,” said Express/Chupacabras Director of Sales, Oscar Rodriguez. “We’ve treated our Copa nights as if they were cultural introductions to our ballclub for fans that haven’t been here before, and I think that really resonates with our fans.”

“On the behalf of MLB, and the 93 other participating Copa MiLB across the system, we congratulate Round Rock on this well-deserved recognition,” said Casey Brett, Major League Baseball’s Senior Vice President of Business Development. “The Chupacabras have been one of our top performing Copa clubs for years, and we commend Round Rock’s staff for their continued commitment to engaging and celebrating their local Latino community.”

Copa’s other finalists for the 2025 season included the Abejas de Lago Salado (Salt Lake Bees), Ajolotes de Kannapolis (Kannapolis Cannon Ballers), Chivos de Hartford (Hartford Yard Goats), Caballitos del Mar de Norfolk (Norfolk Tides), Lansing Locos (Lansing Lugnuts), Los Wepas de Worcester (Worcester Red Sox), Lunáticos de Rocket City (Rocket City Trash Pandas), Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico (Albuquerque Isotopes), Monarcas de Eugene (Eugene Emeralds), Soñadores de Hillsboro (Hillsboro Hops) and the Tumba Vacas de Wichita (Wichita Wind Surge).

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Minor League Baseball consists of 120 teams across four classification levels (Single-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A) that are affiliated with Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. Fans flock to MiLB games to see baseball’s future stars and experience the affordable family-friendly entertainment that has been a staple of MiLB since 1901. For more information, visit MiLB.com. Follow MiLB on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.