So this Twitter thing is really big in the sports world. The New York Giants integrated it into live television broadcasts during the preseason. The Phoenix Suns were looking to hire a social media sideline reporter for home games. Now Mexican First Division soccer team Jaguares de Chiapas has replaced players’ names on the back of their jerseys with their Twitter handles.
This isn’t the first time that soccer and social media have collided, as many Premier League stars use Twitter and Facebook to interact with their fans. However, most initiatives so far have come from players themselves, rather than from their clubs. The situation seems to be quite different at Los Jaguares. Indeed, the club is fully supportive of the stunt and even added its own Twitter handle to the front of its players’ shirts.
Although the initiative is a first in Mexico, it’s not completely new; in fact, the Spanish club of Valencia had already done almost the same last month. In the absence of a sponsor, the club had used its own Twitter handle on the front of players’ shirts in lieu of a sponsor’s name.
While Valencia’s campaign didn’t involve a sponsor, Los Jaguares’ shirts combine both worlds and promote their sponsor’s Twitter account at the same time as their players’.
About the only things left are for players to be allowed to tweet during games or us fans being able to send suggestions on play calls to our favorite teams via Twitter. On second thought scratch that second one, Pete Carroll already allowed Seahawks fans to do that.
H/T Off the Bench
