The Kansas City company bringing Super Bowl — both sides — to Spanish speaking world
Oscar Monterroso doesn’t utter a word as he jumps up and down in the sound booth.
Wearing a red tie and jacket, he pumps his fist and waves his arms above his head.
But he tries to contain his excitement so his partner Kike Morales won’t be interrupted as he calls out every detail of a Chiefs touchdown drive.
“A la quince … a la diez … a la cincoooooo!” And then the touchdown.
“We are broadcasters, of course,” Monterroso said. “But at the same time, we’re fans and we enjoy every play.”
The duo have been calling Chiefs games in Spanish for years with Kansas City’s Tico Sports, which broadcasts on radio, online and through the Chiefs and NFL apps. The two will cover their third Chiefs Super Bowl appearance Sunday, though the big game represents an ever larger milestone for the company — it’s Tico Sports’ first time calling a Super Bowl for both teams. One of its other crews will cover the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Now it’s going to be the Tico Bowl,” Monterroso said with a laugh.
Established in 2016, Tico Sports is an arm of Tico Productions, a Kansas City marketing agency. Company President CiCi Rojas said the sports productions are reaching an ever-growing audience of Spanish speaking fans in the U.S., Latin America and Europe.
“First and foremost, Latinos love sports. They’re extremely loyal to their team and to their sport” she said. “And the NFL is the shiny new toy, if you will.”
That’s because many Spanish-speaking people grew up with soccer. Many are just discovering American football, so Tico Sports makes an extra effort to describe the play on the field.
“A lot of these folks listening are fairly new to the NFL games,” Rojas said. “And so we do have to go above and beyond to describe a little bit more because it’s, it’s almost educational for the fan base.”
In addition to Kansas City and Philadelphia, Tico Sports also covers the Baltimore Ravens, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars along with the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Nebraska and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The U.S. is home to the second-largest native Spanish-speaking population in the world, 50 million people, behind only Mexico. Rojas noted that the NFL’s own marketing is targeting Latinos as it looks to grow its fan base.
But she said her company’s broadcasts do more than just provide game coverage in another language.
“It’s not just functional,” she said. “For some people, it’s more of a language of relationship, a language of love, for lack of a better term. We have a lot of our fan base tell us they just enjoy listening to the passion of the broadcast in Spanish.”
Monterroso’s passion on the headset traces back to his childhood listening to soccer games — fútbol — in Costa Rica and Guatemala.
He remembers radio broadcasts with descriptions so vivid he had to stand up and stare into the radio.
He aims for the same effect when covering every down of a Chiefs game.
“We are calling the game knowing that we have to describe every single thing that is happening on the field. Even the numbers on the back of the players,” he said.
“We want to make sure that you close your eyes and that you can imagine that number on the back of that player that stretches his hand all the way and tries to go over that imaginary line that divides the end of the field and the entrance of the promised land.”
Monterosso said there’s been some trash talking between Tico’s Kansas City and Philadelphia crews in Arizona ahead of Sunday’s big game.
But he said he isn’t making any firm predictions — he knows better.
Any given Sunday, he says.
The Star’s Nick Wagner contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
