Can social media impact a dying sport – like Jai-Alai?
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Mike Olaski in Events, Individuals, Leagues, The Connection, The Fans Perspective, The Sports Perspective
Now that I have landed in Ft. Lauderdale, I am continuing to work on uploading all of the great video and content we gathered throughout our travels on the Sport-Fan Connection Tour. While here, we figured that we should take in some local sporting events. Of course, Florida has a number of professional sports teams in this area including the Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat and the Florida Marlins. However, the event we attended last night might be one that you’ve never heard of —— Jai-Alai.
Dania Jai-Alai
The event we attended was at one of the few Jai-Alai arena in the United States – Danai Jai-Alai. You could tell that the building itself was probably the “place to be” at one point, but as interest in the sport has declined over the years, I would imagine there has not been alot of money to throw around at improvements. The building itself is very worn down and is now best described as a gamblers paradise. There is gambling everywhere with Jai-Alai going on in the main arena, horse races on multiple TV screens in the lobby and a poker room upstairs. Apparently, there is some big money to be made on betting on Jai-Alai, but when you don’t know the rules…..I think your money would better spent on the Roulette table. Needless to say, my $2 bet could be considered a donation to the future of Jai-Alai! However, I can’t complain too much since it was $0.99 Wednesdays (HotDogs, Chicken Wings and Beers for a buck!!…how can you beat that!!! ha). If you are interested in checking this sport out….but can’t make it down to Florida, you can visit http://betdania.com and watch the live streaming games over the internet (no, seriously!!)
Jai-Alai – The Sport
Jai alai promotes itself as “the fastest sport in the world” because of the balls’ speed, although Badminton and Golf have actually seen faster speeds. A 125g–140g ball covered with goatskin can travel up to 302 km/h (188mph). I don’t even know where to begin to explain the rules of this sport (mostly because I don’t have a clue how they score the games…..even after watching 2 hrs of Jai-Alai last night!) I found this video on YouTube that helps explain a bit of the history behind Jai-Alai (warning – it’s a bit dated 
Jai-Alai Documentary
Jai-Alai and Social Media?
As I was watching this new found sports, I couldn’t help but wonder if social media was impacting this sport……and if it isn’t, could it? So, I did a bit of digging around to see what I could find:
I did a quick search for “Jai-Alai Facebook” and found the following:
Jai-Alai Facebook Group – There are currently 126 members in this group. The rules of the game are explained here and there are a couple of links to news articles
Jai-Alai Facebook Fan Page – There are over 660 member of this Fan Page (which is amazing because there is literally nothing on the Fan Page. There is a “Just Fans” wall that has some conversation happening, but it doesn’t appear anyone has engaged in the page for a couple months now). A link to http://www.jai-alai.info/ can be found in the “Info” section. I have to assume that they are the ones that built this Facebook Fan Page??
Ironically, I used the “search” feature on my Tweetie iPhone application and saw that there were people at the event last night talking about the Jai-Alai match. Here’s a link to the tweet posted by a Twitter user at the Danai Jai-Alai event last: http://twitter.com/radiodanshow/statuses/4852566047. Unfortunately, I didn’t check it last night or I would have taken the time to track this person down to discuss their interest in the game.
I also discovered, to my amazement, when using http://search.twitter.com that there are a number of other people talking about the sport on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=jai-alai
I also did a quick search for “Jai-Alai Twitter” using Google and came across an official Dania Jai-Alai Twitter account. There are only a handful of followers of the account (23 to be exact) and they are using it mostly to promote upcoming events (like the $0.99 Wednesday, Horse Races and Poker Tournaments)
YouTube
There are a number of clips on YouTube profiling the sport of Jai-Alai (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jai+alai&search_type=&aq=f) But, the one that stood out the most for me was during an episode of Jackass where Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O take shots from some professional Jai-Alai players. I think the real Jai-Alai ball would potentially kill them…..so, in this case, they used oranges. Haha…enjoy!
Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O (Jackass) – Jai Alai
Conclusion
I certainly don’t think that the sport of Jai-Alai will ever reach the popularity of other major sports in the world (soccer, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc), but considering what I have seen in my research, there is definitely room for improvement. The great part about social media is that you can target your messaging to your target audience and reach out to those that are already engaged with the sports. After all, there is no better promotion (with regards to impact vs cost) than word of mouth. And by leveraging the voice of advocates for the sport, the sport could benefit from their influence and messaging.
I can’t say that I found an “official” Jai-Alai Association that oversees the sport internationally, but there are a number of Jai-Alai groups out there that would all benefit from a collective effort in promoting the game using social media. Social networks (like this one created on Ning), would be a good place to start in finding those Jai-Alai advocates
