CAROLINA, Puerto Rico — Vianca Braña never attended 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 read “Carola,” a nickname for her city.
“We started making this fun, and I wanted to represent the city 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 started betting on various teams in Puerto Rico with her friends.
Braña’s enthusiasm illustrates how Puerto Rico’s professional men’s basketball league is experiencing a resurgence, powered by reggaeton stars like Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Anuel AA, who are getting into the financial game, buying local teams and helping build a loyal fan base on the island. Not seen for 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 northern Puerto Rico to Los Leones de Ponce in the south.
Attendance more than doubled between 2018 and 2023, 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 increased dramatically in recent years.
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 led to a resurgence in Puerto Rico’s basketball scene. Other artists such as Anuel AA soon followed, purchasing Arecibo’s Capitanes team before a new owner took over in 2023, and Ozuna took over Manatí’s team in 2022 and renamed it Los Osos. The league, known as BSN, currently has 12 teams playing, up from nine just four years ago.
Basketball games have transformed into premier gathering events, attracting celebrities such as NBA legend LeBron James, former boxer Floyd Mayweather and reggaeton artists including Arcangel and Rauw Alejandro, captivating audiences of all ages hoping to catch a glimpse of them .
“When Noah and Bad Bunny came along, we made a lot of noise,” said Ricardo Dalmau, president of BSN. “It was an explosion of attention.”
Dalmau said local TV ratings also showed an upward trend after they started broadcasting some games in 2021, with the biggest surprise being their largest viewer block: women aged 18 to 49, a new audience that was also reflected in the stands.
“You never know what artist you’re going to find in the (competition),” he said.
Before the recent wave of popularity, the league was under financial pressure. While Dalmau did not provide specific figures, he said there was a lot of uncertainty about whether certain teams would participate or whether the league would be able to honor players’ contracts. “We don’t have those problems anymore,” he says.
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 league’s heyday.
“New generations have never seen this before,” Sabath said. “The boom in urban artists has revived forgotten Puerto Rican sports history.”
Sabath said the momentum created by artists has fueled fans’ excitement beyond just seeing reggaeton stars. “Indirectly, these artists attract enough attention to get people interested in our competition,” he said. “It’s a domino effect.”
A bittersweet moment recently occurred when the Puerto Rico men’s national basketball team, made up of several star players from the league, qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The win over Lithuania ended a two-decade drought for the team that last competed in 2004 and defeated the U.S. team at the Athens Olympics. It’s also a loss for the league’s teams playing later in the summer.
The competition’s renaissance comes after its peak more than 40 years ago. Teams in Bayamón, Quebradillas, Ponce and other cities had produced renowned players, including Butch Lee, the first Puerto Rican player to join the National Basketball Association; Raymond Dalmau, whose son currently chairs the league; and Rubén Rodríguez, who played for Los Vaqueros in Bayamón.
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 the San Juan team, while other ex-NBA players such as DeMarcus Cousins, Lance Stephenson and Brandon Knight also joined before moving on to other stints.
Yet some issues remain beyond the league’s control, including severe budget cuts, with the government cutting the budget for the island’s sports and recreation department 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 disruptions to play after heavy rains.
“Despite the lack of economic resources, we were able to solve it,” said Ray Quiñones, Puerto Rico’s secretary of sports and recreation, whose infrastructure budget was cut from about $15,300 in 2014 to just $7,500 in 2024.
Sports arenas face the added problem of chronic power outages in Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding its power grid after Hurricane María, a Category 4 storm that leveled the island in September 2017.
In June, a match in Carolina between the home team, Los Gigantes, and Mayagüez’s Los Indios was suspended after a widespread power outage left more than 340,000 customers without electricity. A month earlier, a match 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 outages – and a new sense of pride from attending the games.
For fans like Annais Ramírez, basketball arenas feel like safe spaces, especially for women who want to engage in historically male-dominated fields.
“There are so many artists coming to the games, and you wonder if you’re going to meet one,” the 27-year-old said as she stood next to her friend, who wore a necklace with a diamond-encrusted “C.” for the city of Carolina.
Her love for Carolina’s team has grown more than she expected when she meets a celebrity. In her spare time, Ramírez uses social media to keep up with the games she couldn’t attend in person, watching highlights, halftime performances and crowd reactions.
“They motivate you to be part of the movement,” she said. “On weekdays this helps me relax.”
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