(6 Jul 2024)
++CORRECTION: AMENDING SHOT 2 TO ‘FAN WATCHES THE GAME’, NOT ‘REGGAETON SINGER JOWELL WATCHES THE GAME’++
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
San Juan, Puerto Rico – 1 July 2024
1. Various of cheerleaders at the basketball match between Mets de Guaynabo and Vaqueros de Bayamon
2. Fans watching the game
3. Various of fans cheering the players
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ricardo Dalmau, President of the Puerto Rico Professional Basketball League:
“The entry of urban genre artists, in 2021 Bad Bunny – even if maybe he is not that new now- and Anuel, and last year Ozuna, generated a huge interest.”
5. Various of people entering the Ruben Rodríguez Coliseum stadium
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ricardo Dalmau, President of the Puerto Rico Professional Basketball League:
“There was a mix of factors that generated growth, not only of the older people who followed (the games) but also of the youth. There are many people following the BSN (Baloncesto Superior Nacional) and there has been much international growth.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
ARCHIVE: San Juan, Puerto Rico – 30 May 2022
7. Various of reggaeton singer Bad Bunny entering stadium and greeting fans
8. Various of Bad Bunny narrating a basketball game for a local TV station
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
San Juan, Puerto Rico – 1 July 2024
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jessibelle Millan, Mets de Guaynabo supporter:
“We love them (reggaeton singers), and I also see it as a way for them to inject the sport with the youth.”
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Victoria Ortega, Mets de Guaynabo supporter:
“I feel that this is something that they should continue to do with sports in Puerto Rico, so that it reaches the (sports) courts more. Something they should continue to do in the future.”
11. Mascot cheering
STORYLINE:
Puerto Rico’s professional basketball league is experiencing a renaissance thanks to reggaeton artists like Bad Bunny, Ozuna, and Anuel AA stepping into the financial game and stacking up a loyal fan base.
Basketball games transformed into premier rendezvous, attracting celebrities and audiences of all ages hoping to see them.
A pivotal moment in the league’s revival came in 2021, when three-time Grammy winner Bad Bunny, along with his manager Noah Assad, became co-owner of Los Cangrejeros of Santurce.
What were once half-empty stadiums in Puerto Rico are now packed, filled with families and younger fans carrying percussion instruments like “pleneras” and cheering for their favorite teams, from Los Capitanes of Arecibo in northern Puerto Rico to Los Leones of Ponce in the south.
Attendance more than doubled from 2018 to 2023, skyrocketing from some 480,000 tickets sold to nearly one million, according to the league.
The league’s digital presence also has soared, with its YouTube channel attracting over 85,600 subscribers last year, Instagram followers have surged from 52,800 in June 2019 to 220,000 so far this year.
“When Noah and Bad Bunny came along, we generated a lot of noise,” said Ricardo Dalmau, president of the island’s professional men’s basketball league. “It was an explosion of attention.”
Dalmau said local TV ratings saw an upward tick after they began broadcasting some of their games in 2021, with the biggest surprise being their largest viewership block: women ages 18 to 49. This new audience also was reflected in the bleachers.
The league currently has 12 teams, compared with only nine playing four years ago.
AP video shot by Alejandro Granadillo
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