Remember when Dana White announced that he would pay his UFC fighters bonuses for Tweeting, thus breaking new ground in the world of sports social media? Well a Mexican soccer team known as the Jaguares in the Mexican Primera Division have raised the bar again. Rather than traditional names on the backs of jerseys, players will now wear their Twitter handles instead. How’s that for self-promotion?
In my experience, and aside from a few standouts, athletes don’t have all that much to say on Twitter. Then again, neither does Lady Gaga or Selena Gomez and each has millions of followers and set a new trending topic every time they say the word “fans.” Twitter’s stream platform allows users to follow accounts and people they like, basically just for the fudge of it. Basically, every soccer fan in Mexico is going to be following these guys, along with the @CervezaSol account, the team’s alcoholic sponsor and printed right under each player’s Twitter. From a promotional standpoint it’s absolutely genius and a clever way to get people watching and embrace emerging technology. Not to mention the fact that the Twitter Bird is printed on the jersey as well, something I’m sure they are paying for.
This is America of course, so as you might have gathered, I am not a Soccer fan, much less a Mexican Soccer fan. My hope is that this concept will catch on here in The States and some teams that I actually like will step up their Twitter game. Imagine Rex Ryan Tweeting? He’d probably pass Gaga on day 3. Derek Jeter? Can’t imagine that would be very exciting but I’d follow that dude into battle. Bottom line, the day where a Mexican Soccer team is more technologically advanced than an American Football or Baseball team is a sad day. Step it up USA. The standard has been set.
