CAROLINA, Puerto Rico – Vianca Braña never watched basketball games in her hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico – or anywhere else in the United States. But in recent years, the 23-year-old has left the arena with a hoarse voice, often wearing a T-shirt that read “Carola,” her hometown nickname.
“We started making it fun and I wanted to represent the city I come from,” said Braña, who attended his first game of the year Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny purchased a team from the island’s professional men’s basketball league. It was also around this time that she started betting on different teams in Puerto Rico with her friends.
Braña’s fervor illustrates how Puerto Rico’s professional men’s basketball league is undergoing a renaissance, fueled by reggaeton stars like Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Anuel AA, who are getting into the financial game, buying local teams and helping to form a loyal fan base on the island. has not testified in over 40 years.
What were once half-empty arenas in Puerto Rico are now packed, filled with families and young fans cheering on their favorite teams, from Los Capitanes de Arecibo in the north of Puerto Rico to Los Leones de Ponce in the south.
Attendance more than doubled between 2018 and 2023, skyrocketing 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 soared in recent years.
A pivotal moment in the league’s revival came in 2021 when Bad Bunny, three-time Grammy winner 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 followed quickly, purchasing the Capitanes team from Arecibo before a new owner took over in 2023, and Ozuna acquiring the Manatí team, renaming it Los Osos, in 2022. The league, known as BSN, currently has 12 teams playing, in compared to nine just four years ago. .
Basketball games have turned into A-list gathering events, attracting celebrities like NBA Legend LeBron Jamesformer boxer Floyd Mayweather and reggaeton artists including Arcangel and Rauw Alejandro, capturing audiences of all ages hoping to catch a glimpse of them.
“When Noah and Bad Bunny came out, we generated a lot of noise,” said Ricardo Dalmau, president of BSN. “It was an explosion of attention.”
Dalmau said local TV viewership also increased after they started broadcasting some games in 2021, with the biggest surprise being the largest audience block: women aged 18 to 49, a new audience that was also reflected in the stands.
“You never know what artist you’ll find in the (league),” he said.
Before its recent surge in popularity, the league was under financial difficulties. While Dalmau didn’t provide specific numbers, he said there was a lot of uncertainty about whether certain teams would participate or whether the league could fulfill players’ contracts. “We don’t have those problems anymore,” he said.
Javier Sabath, a popular basketball commentator on the island, said he is witnessing what his father – himself a sports commentator decades ago – describes as the environment in the 1980s, the league’s heyday.
“The new generations have never seen this before,” Sabath said. “The boom in urban artists has revived the history of Puerto Rican sports that had been forgotten.”
Sabath said the momentum created by the artists fueled fans’ enthusiasm beyond just seeing reggaeton stars. “Indirectly, these artists are attracting enough attention to get people interested in our league,” he said. “It’s a domino effect.”
A bittersweet moment occurred recently when the Puerto Rico men’s basketball team, comprised of several of the league’s all-stars, 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 US team at the Athens Olympics. It’s also a loss for the league teams playing later in the summer.
The league’s revival comes after its peak more than 40 years ago. Teams from Bayamón, Quebradillas, Ponce and other cities 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.
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 will play for the San Juan team, while other former NBA players like DeMarcus CousinsLance 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 cutting the budget of the island’s sports and recreation department in over half about the last decade. The lack of investment and maintenance in sports arenas across the island has caused leaks, leading to the suspension of games following heavy rain.
“Despite the lack of economic resources, we managed to solve the problem,” said Ray Quiñones, secretary of sports and recreation for Puerto Rico, whose infrastructure budget was reduced from about $15,300 in 2014 to just $7,500 in 2024.
Sports arenas face the additional problem of chronic power outages in Puerto Rico, which is Still rebuilding its electrical grid after Hurricane Maríaa Category 4 storm that devastated the island in September 2017.
In June, a game in Carolina between the home team, Los Gigantes, and Los Indios de Mayagüez was suspended after a widespread power outage left more than 340,000 customers without electricity. A month earlier, a game at San Juan’s main arena was also suspended due to a power outage.
Despite the challenges, younger generations are finding refuge outside their homes – which also face frequent power cuts – and a new sense of pride in watching games.
For fans like Annais Ramírez, basketball arenas feel like safe spaces, especially for women looking to participate in historically male-dominated fields.
“There are so many artists coming to the games, and you wonder if you’ll find any,” said the 27-year-old alongside her friend, who wore a diamond-encrusted “C” necklace. to the city of Carolina.
His love for Carolina’s team grew beyond his expectation of becoming a celebrity. In her free time, Ramírez accesses social media to follow the games she was unable to attend in person, checking out highlights, halftime performances and public reactions.
“It motivates you to be part of the movement,” she said. “During the week, it helps me relax.”
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