According to ESPN Reporter Marc Stein, the Phoenix Suns have announced that they will host a pair of regular season games in Mexico City in January.
The Suns, league sources say, will soon announce they're hosting regular-season games in Mexico City in January against Dallas & San Antonio
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 19, 2016
This will be the second year in a row that the NBA is hosting a regular season game in Mexico City as the Sacramento Kings and the Boston Celtics squared off in Mexico City on December 3, 2015.
This is a very savvy move for the Suns because of their proximity to Mexico and their large Hispanic fan base.
As you can see below, courtesy of a 2014 study from FiveThirtyEight, the Spurs and Suns have two of the top three Hispanic fan bases by percentage in the NBA:
You can almost be guaranteed that the NBA will have another game in London in the 2016-17 season and the possibility of a regular season game in China is in play.
The NBA has clearly done a great job of making their league a global phenomenon. This is just another step for them to establish themselves in another market and can potentially lead to some more merchandise sales for the franchises involved.
