How reggaeton stars are driving basketball boom in Puerto Rico

Carolina (AP)

Vianca Braña never used to attend basketball games in her hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico — or anywhere else in the United States territory. But in recent years, the 23-year-old has left the arena with a hoarse voice, often wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Carola’ a nickname for her town.

“We started making this fun, and I wanted to represent the town where I’m from,” 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 teams across Puerto Rico with her girlfriends.

Braña’s fervour illustrates how Puerto Rico’s professional men’s basketball league is experiencing a revival, driven by reggaeton stars like Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Anuel AA, who are stepping into the financial game, buying local teams and helping to stack up a loyal fan base the island hasn’t witnessed in over 40 years.

What were once half-empty arenas in Puerto Rico are now packed, filled with families and young fans cheering for their favourite teams, from Los Capitanes de Arecibo in northern Puerto Rico to Los Leones de Ponce in the south.

Attendance more than doubled from 2018 to 2023, skyrocketing from some 480,000 tickets sold to nearly 1 million, according to Puerto Rico’s professional men’s basketball league, whose digital presence has also soared in the past few years.

PIVOTAL MOMENT

A pivotal moment in the league’s revival came in 2021, when three-time Grammy winner Bad Bunny became co-owner of Los Cangrejeros de Santurce, along with his manager, Noah Assad.

Bad Bunny’s frequent game-day visits sparked a resurgence in Puerto Rico’s basketball scene. Other artists like Anuel AA quickly followed, buying Arecibo’s Capitanes team before a new owner took over in 2023, and Ozuna acquiring Manatí’s team, renaming it Los Osos, in 2022. The league, known as BSN, currently has 12 teams playing, compared with nine just four years ago.

Basketball games have transformed into premier rendezvous events, attracting celebrities like NBA legend LeBron James, former boxer Floyd Mayweather and reggaeton artists including Arcangel and Rauw Alejandro, capturing audiences of all ages hoping to get a glimpse of them.

“When Noah and Bad Bunny came along, we generated a lot of noise,” said Ricardo Dalmau, president of BSN. “It was an explosion of attention.”

Dalmau said local TV ratings also saw an upward tick after they began broadcasting some games in 2021, with the biggest surprise being their largest viewership block: women ages 18 to 49, a new audience that was also reflected in the bleachers.

“You never know what artist you’re going to find in the (league),” he said.

FINANCIAL STRAIN

Before its recent surge in popularity, the league was under financial strain. Although 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 fulfil players’ contracts. “We don’t have those problems any more,” he said.

Javier Sabath, a popular basketball commentator on the island, said he is witnessing what his father — a sports commentator himself decades ago — describes as the environment in the 1980s, the heyday of the league.

“New generations have never seen this before,” Sabath said. “The boom with urban artists revived the Puerto Rican sports history that had been forgotten.”

Sabath said the momentum created by artists has fuelled fans’ excitement beyond just seeing reggaeton stars. “Indirectly, these artists are attracting enough attention to make people interested in our league,” he said. “It’s a domino effect.”

A bittersweet moment took place recently, when Puerto Rico national men’s basketball team, composed of several of the league’s star players, qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The victory over Lithuania broke a 20-year drought for the team that last competed in 2004, beating the USA team in the Athens Olympics. It is also a loss for the league’s teams playing later in the summer.

The league’s renaissance comes after its peak over 40 years ago. Teams in Bayamón, Quebradillas, Ponce and other towns had produced renowned players, including Butch Lee, the first Puerto Rican player to enter the National Basketball Association; Raymond Dalmau, whose son currently presides over the league; and Rubén Rodríguez, who played for Los Vaqueros in Bayamón.

MOVED TO PUERTO RICO

As part of the current frenzy, ex-NBA players have moved to Puerto Rico in recent years to join the league. Will Barton and Jared Sullinger play for San Juan’s team, while other ex-NBA players like DeMarcus Cousins, Lance Stephenson and Brandon Knight also joined before moving on to other stints.

Still, some problems remain beyond the league’s control, including severe budget cuts, with the government slashing the island’s sports and recreation department budget by more than half over the past decade. A lack of investment and maintenance in sports arenas across the island has caused leaks, leading to game suspensions after heavy rains.

“Despite the lack of economic resources, we’ve been able to sort it out,” said Ray Quiñones, secretary of sports and recreation of Puerto Rico, whose infrastructure budget was cut from about $15,300 in 2014 to barely $7,500 in 2024.

Sports arenas face the additional problem of chronic power outages across Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding its electric grid after Hurricane María, a Category 4 storm that razed the island in September 2017.

Despite the challenges, younger generations are finding refuge outside their homes — which also contend with frequent power outages — and a new sense of pride by attending the games.