CAROLINA, Puerto Rico (AP) — Vianca Braña didn’t usually attend basketball games in her hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico — or anywhere else in the U.S. territory. But in recent years, the 23-year-old has emerged from the arena with a hoarse voice, often wearing a T-shirt that reads “Carola,” a nickname for her hometown.
“Among friends we create fun, and I wanted to represent where I’m from, Carolina,” said Braña, who attended her first game the year Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny bought a team in the island’s professional men’s basketball league. It was also around that time that she began placing bets on different Puerto Rican teams with her friends.
Braña’s fervor illustrates how Puerto Rico’s Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) league is now experiencing a resurgence, fueled by reggaeton stars like Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Anuel AA, who are getting into the financial game, buying local teams and helping grow a loyal fan base the island hasn’t seen in more than 40 years.
What were once half-empty stadiums in Puerto Rico are now packed with families and young fans cheering on their favorite teams, from Los Capitanes de Arecibo in northern Puerto Rico to Los Leones de Ponce in the south.
Attendance more than doubled between 2018 and 2023, soaring from about 480,000 tickets sold to nearly 1 million, according to Puerto Rico’s professional men’s basketball league, whose digital presence has also taken off in recent years.
A key moment in the league’s resurgence occurred in 2021, when three-time Grammy winner Bad Bunny became co-owner of Los Cangrejeros de Santurce, alongside his manager, Noah Assad.
Bad Bunny’s frequent game-day visits sparked a resurgence in Puerto Rico’s basketball scene. Other singers like Anuel AA quickly followed suit: He purchased the Capitanes de Arecibo team before a new owner took over in 2023, and Ozuna acquired the Manatí team, which he renamed Los Osos, in 2022. The BSN currently has 12 teams, compared to nine just four years ago.
Basketball games have become major events, attracting celebrities such as NBA legend LeBron James, former boxer Floyd Mayweather and reggaeton singers Arcángel and Rauw Alejandro, capturing audiences of all ages who are hoping to see them.
“When Noah and Bad Bunny came, we generated a lot of noise,” said Ricardo Dalmau, president of BSN. “That was an explosion of attention.” Dalmau reported that local television ratings also saw a spike when they began broadcasting some games in 2021, and that the biggest surprise was their largest audience block: Women ages 18 to 49, a new audience that was also reflected in the stands. “You never know what artist you’re going to find at BSN,” he added.
Before its recent surge in popularity, the league was under financial pressure. While Dalmau did not provide specific numbers, he said there used to be a lot of uncertainty about whether certain teams would participate or whether the league could honor players’ contracts. “We are no longer having those problems,” he said.
Javier Sabath, a popular basketball commentator on the island, said he is a witness to what his father — also a sports commentator decades ago — describes as the atmosphere of the 1980s: The heyday of the league.
“The younger generations had never seen this,” Sabath said. “The boom it has had with urban artists has revived Puerto Rican sports history that had been forgotten.”
Sabath added that the momentum created by the singers has fueled fans’ enthusiasm beyond simply seeing reggaeton stars.
“Indirectly, the fact that these artists were there has drawn attention to our league and made people interested in it,” he said. “This has been a domino effect.”
A bittersweet moment recently took place, when Puerto Rico’s men’s national basketball team, comprised of several of the league’s star players, qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The win over Lithuania broke a 20-year drought for the team that last competed in 2004 — and beat Team USA at the Athens Olympics. But that’s also a loss for the league’s teams that will play later in the summer.
BSN’s rebirth follows its heyday more than 40 years ago. Teams in Bayamón, Quebradillas, Ponce and other cities had produced big-name players, including Butch Lee, the first Puerto Rican player to enter the NBA; Raymond Dalmau, whose son currently presides over the league; and Rubén Rodríguez, who played for Los Vaqueros de Bayamón.
As part of the current frenzy, former NBA players have moved to Puerto Rico in recent years to join the league. Will Barton and Jared Sullinger play for the San Juan team, while other former NBA players such as DeMarcus Cousins, Lance Stephenson and Brandon Knight also joined before moving on to other things.
Still, some problems remain outside the league’s control, including severe budget cuts and the government cutting the island’s Department of Recreation and Sports’ budget by more than half over the past decade. Lack of investment and maintenance at sports stadiums across the island has caused leaks, leading to game suspensions after heavy rains.
“Despite the lack of financial resources that were taken from us from those years until now, we have solved it,” said Ray Quiñones, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Recreation and Sports, whose infrastructure budget was reduced from about $15,300 in 2014 to just $7,500 in 2024.
Sports stadiums face the added problem of chronic power outages across Puerto Rico, which is still working to rebuild its electrical grid after Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that devastated the island in September 2017.
In June, a game in Carolina between the local team, Los Gigantes, and Los Indios de Mayagüez, was called off after a widespread power outage left more than 340,000 customers without electricity. A month earlier, a game at San Juan’s main stadium was also called off due to a power outage.
Despite the challenges, younger generations are finding refuge outside their homes — which also have to deal with frequent power outages — and a new sense of pride when they attend the games.
For fans like Annais Ramirez, basketball arenas feel like safe spaces, especially for women looking to participate in fields historically dominated by men.
There are so many artists who come to the games that you wonder if you’ll run into one, said the 27-year-old, who was with a friend wearing a diamond-studded necklace in the shape of a “C” — the name of the town of Carolina.
His love for Carolina’s team has grown beyond his expectation of meeting a celebrity. During his free time, Ramirez browses social media to catch up on games he couldn’t attend in person, checking out highlights, halftime shows and crowd reactions.
“It’s very exhilarating, and it motivates people to come,” he said in English and Spanish. “On weekdays, to clear your head, this is super chilling.”
2024-07-14 17:50:39
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