As chronicled last week in the Post-Gazette’s Blog ‘N Gold, Behind the Steel Curtain, and Steelers.com, the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first NFL football team to hold a camp for fans down in Mexico.

As a member of Steelers Nation living abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, anything brings the Steelers closer to Latin America is worthy of excitement.

To sum up the story, Ziggy Hood, Keenan Lewis, Mike Wallace, and Daniel Sepúlveda traveled to Mexico City to put on a clinic that drew 500 kids in addition about 1000 spectators.

¿How Big Is This?

Getting 1500 people to show up for a Steelers event might not seem like much, but it is. While the attention of sports fans in the US has long been divided between individual sports like tennis and golf and “the big four” team sports, here in Latin America soccer has occupied most of the latter space all for itself. Moreover, the the World Cup is being played (which is kind of like March Madness, the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, and NBA finals — all at once), and Mexico is doing well

None of that stopped Mexico’s first lady Margarita Zavala, who was in South Africa for the World Cup, from traveling across the ocean to attend. That should give you an idea of how big this is.

The Steelers have long been popular in Mexico – remember how the Black and Gold dominated the 85,000 who were on hand at Azteca Stadium for the preseason game in 2000 against the Colts, but their decision to put on a camp in Mexico amounts to an important milestone.

Steelers Sites in Mexico

One of the good things to come out of this is the fact that so many Steelers groups in Mexico are getting good publicity out of this. This site has drawn a huge number of visitors from Mexico, and if the statistics from Google Analytics are at all reliable, these visitors come back regularly.

¡Muchas gracias a mis quierdos lectores de Mexico! ¡Les agredezco su apoyo y lealtad!

Just a little research reveals that there are several Steelers sites written in Mexico, including:

http://www.steelers.com.mx/
http://boixnoixacererosmexico.com/
http://www.steelersmexico.com.mx/
http://foro.steelers.com.mx/index.php

Doubtlessly there are more, and that is where you come in. If you know of any other Spanish language or Latin American-based Steelers sites, please share them by leaving a comment.

Hombres de Acero en Argentina

Is the title suggests, there is a Steelers following here in Argentina. The NFL is not very popular down here, and for awhile Direct TV only provided one third of the NFL Sunday Ticket (not a good way to achieve market penetration, let me tell you), although hopefully the efforts of the Argentine American Football Association have made that a thing of the past.

When I first moved to Buenos Aires in 2001 I founded and proclaimed myself President of the Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Club of Buenos Aires.

Thus far we have an inactive vice President (a great guy, but running your own business is demanding), and another, more active member whom I met while watching Super Bowl XLIII.

So if you are a Steelers fan in Buenos Aries, make your presence known and let’s see if we can generate come momentum for the Black and Gold down on the opposite end of Latin America.

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