Baseball is a symbol of tradition in America and even purity, well maybe not purity, but certainly tradition.
Baseball canít really be considered pure, not since the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, then, not to mention the strikes and now the steroid issues. But baseball always had tradition.Just walking by many ballparks feels like youíre taking a step back in history. Walking through the tunnels to the seats and seeing the same fields that Ruth, Aaron, Mays, Cy Young, and so many others played on. But now Major League Baseball is ruining that, and for a measly $3.6 million.
Last Wednesday the MLB announced that they struck a deal with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures to put Spiderman 2 advertisements on the bases and the on deck batting circles. The advertising will happen during the weekend of June 11-13 during interleague play.
Imagine Babe Ruth standing on the Gone With the Wind on deck circle or Ricky Henderson stealing his 939th Ferris Buellerís Day Off base. Itís not right.
Other sports have sold out and allowed advertising. It would be quite difficult to pick out your favorite Nascar racer if every car was white with black numbers, but itís a lot easier to pick them out if you only have to look for the Nabisco or Home Depot logo racing around the track. Then there is hockey where the boards are lined with ads and basketball has embraced advertisements on the scorer's table.
Baseball has had advertising in the ballparks for years. There are old black and white pictures of cigarette ads on outfield walls. Then there is the famous Citgo sign outside of Fenway, the red Budweiser rooftop across the street from Wrigley, and the giant Coke bottle in the outfield of the Giants new ballpark.
There have been small commemorative logos on bases for all-star games and the World Series, but not ads.
Many on sports talk radio say it was only a matter of time before MLB allowed for ads on bases and itís only a matter of time before we see ads on helmets and jerseys like we see in Japanese baseball.
If there are going to be annoying ads everywhere ok, but the MLB really got hosed in their deal with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures. It would have been one thing if one team was receiving $3.6 million for this deal, but once the money is divided up, the Yankees and Red Sox will cash in somewhere around $100,000 and the other teams who host home games that weekend will receive about $50,000.
Now $3.6 million is a lot of money to the average person, but movie studios dish out much more than that for TV spots to promote their movies. In this deal not only are they getting a logo for the movie on the bases, but teams will have promotions and give-aways, not to mention video clips on the jumbotrons, but now everybody is talking about the movie and whatís going on.
Luckily MLB officials listened to the outcry from fans and thought the idea was a bad one. They are still going to proceed with the promotion weekend, just without ads on the bases.
Top of Page
