The effort was to help increase their reach to Spanish speaking fans in the DMV, but also globally.
The Washington Wizards released their Spanish language social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram this past Thursday. They will release an Arabic language set of social media accounts soon.
The Wizards are only one of seven NBA teams to offer Spanish-language social media accounts. The others are the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs. I found that to be surprising, considering that Spanish is the most commonly spoken language in the United States after English.
In a press release by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Chief Commercial Officer Jim Van Stone said the following:
We are thrilled to launch our new Spanish social accounts. As part of our commitment to growing the game of basketball and to continue to connect fans all over the world to our brand, having Spanish social presence platforms gives an opportunity to extend our reach globally.
I understand the Wizards’ efforts to reach out to the Japanese market with Rui Hachimura and the Israeli market with Deni Avdija.
But with Spanish language content, I don’t see how the Wizards’ reach will grow that much by reaching out to Spain and Argentina, the two most notable Spanish-speaking countries that are successful on the global stage. They already produced some great NBA players over the last 20 years. None of them have played for the Wizards. And though Capital City Go-Go center Jaime Echenique is from Colombia, he has only one appearance in a Wizards uniform.
To me, the Spanish language outreach makes sense, and every NBA team should do it. But the Wizards’ outreach in Spanish should be because of the large Spanish-speaking population already have here in the DMV with the players the Wizards already have. The Wizards should not do this because they want to reach out to Spanish and Argentine fans and win another International Strategy Award.
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