In case you weren't sure if the age of social media had firmly arrived, this should clinch it. For the first time (in the United States), a professional sports team has replaced the names of its players on their jerseys with their Twitter handles.
The Philadelphia Wings, a professional lacrosse team, is seeking National Lacrosse League approval to replace its players' names with their Twitter handles for a game to be played on February 12. The jerseys will be auctioned off after the game, with proceeds going to benefit the American Cancer Society.
This Twitter-replacement game is part of an effort by the team to increase its social media profile. Every player on the team will be required to start a Twitter account if they don't already have one, and the players will receive training in how to use it.
This is a pretty interesting way for the team to build a connection between the players and fans - especially for a niche professional sport like lacrosse. (Full disclosure: until I found out about this, I had no idea that professional lacrosse existed.) Since the audience for this sport and others like it is a lot smaller than, say, football, then building engagement should help maintain fan loyalty and give the teams more of a community feel.
It'll be interesting to see if this experiment pays off, and also interesting to see if any other teams start using Twitter handles in place of names on player jerseys as part of an effort to build their social media presence.
Update: I had originally indicated that the Wings were the first pro sports team to use Twitter handles in lieu of names. As it turns out, they're just the first American team to do so. The Mexican soccer team Jaguares de Chiapas also made the change earlier this year. Thanks to everyone on Twitter who let me know about this.
(h/t @hurrdat)
