Oh, brother...MLB in bed with Spiderman

[WSUCougar]

Oh boy!

From ESPN.com:

If Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter turns a double play against the San Diego Padres in their mid-June matchup, he'll likely have to step on Spider-Man's web to do it.






As part of a marketing alliance between Major League Baseball Properties, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, webbed logos of the upcoming film "Spider-Man 2" will appear on bases and on-deck circles in 15 stadiums of teams playing host to interleague games June 11-13.

The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal in its Wednesday editions, comes a day after presidential candidate Ralph Nader called the placement of Ricoh logos on the uniform and helmets of players during the season-opening series between the Yankees and Devil Rays in Tokyo "a greedy new low."

Last weekend, 10 jockeys in the Kentucky Derby wore sponsors' patches, ranging from 20th Century Fox to the resort owned by the Miccosukee Tribe, which already has one of the largest signs in Major League Baseball -- it covers the majority of the left-field wall at Pro Player Stadium. The stadium, ironically, is named after a company that filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

National Hockey League teams have sold advertising on the dasherboards that ring the ice and have permitted teams to sell logos to appear on the ice itself. Though the NFL does not allow corporate advertising to appear on playing surfaces, Pepsi will pay the league $360 million over the next eight years for the rights to place Gatorade coolers, and cups and towels with the sports drink maker's logo, on sidelines.

And while it appears a deal that puts the "Spider-Man 2" ad promotion on the bases is yet another sign that everything is for sale, Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer, insists that fans should not expect to be bombarded with advertising when watching games.

"This is not a step toward wallpapering the ballpark," said DuPuy, noting that MLB has placed logos on bases in the past for All-Star and World Series games, though league officials have never specifically sold the space before.

DuPuy said Columbia Pictures originally wanted to put "Spider-Man 2" webbing on the netting behind home plate, but the request was turned down for fear it would distract players. Pitching rubbers and home plate will be adorned with "Spider-Man 2" branding before games, but will be replaced with standard white plates once the games start.

The fact that the "Spider-Man 2" logo will actually grace on-deck circles might cause more of a stir at the ballpark than a television vantage point. Virtual signage, advertising that is digitally inserted in the broadcast feed but does not appear at the stadium, has been commonplace -- especially in the area behind home plate -- for the past four seasons.

Foam fingers and masks with the "Spider-Man 2" logo will be given away at select ballparks. The movie is scheduled to open in theatres June 30.

"This is the perfect alliance between two quintessential national pastimes -- baseball and movie-going," Geoffrey Ammer, president of worldwide marketing for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, said in a statement.

Others weren't so sure.

"Some will say this reinforces the convergence of sports and entertainment, while others will suggest the only thing converging is bad taste," said David Carter, principal of The Sports Business Group, a sports marketing firm.

Baseball will receive about $3.6 million in a deal negotiated by Major League Baseball Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Inc., a high-ranking baseball executive told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

"I guess it's inevitable, but it's sad," Fay Vincent, a former baseball commissioner and former president of Columbia Pictures, told AP. "I'm old-fashioned. I'm a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this."

The teams will get a piece of the pie from the promotion. Large-market clubs like the Yankees and the Red Sox reportedly will receive more than $100,000 each through the promotion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"The fans are already becoming used to corporate logos being a part of their sporting events," said Jeff Chown, managing director of The Marketing Arm, an entertainment and sports marketing consultancy firm. "The purists will say that something like this is not good for the game, but something like this also helps promote the game."

In truth, the sports world is only mirroring the rest of society. Beverage companies often pay schools to allow installation of their vending machines. Just last month, video game publisher Activision and Nielsen, which measures television ratings, formed a partnership to monitor corporate advertising in video games.

The latest partnership could open the door to even more advertising opportunities, but DuPuy says fans should not be upset by the alliance.

"This does nothing to impact the play of the game," DuPuy said. "The base doesn't know that it has a corporate name on it, nor does the foot that hits the base."

Although there has been much ado about the potential for the league to sell advertising on uniforms, DuPuy says "we have nothing on the table."

Said Carter: "Imagine how much worse it could have been -- especially in San Francisco -- if baseball had partnered with a studio for the sequel to The Incredible Hulk."

[Cecil Fielder]

eventually baseball players are gonna look like NASCAR drivers.

[JeeberD]

Damn, looking three-quarters down the page sure is tough...

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...ad.php?t=25225

Of course, yours is better since it has that awesome pic...

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Cecil Fielder

eventually baseball players are gonna look like NASCAR drivers.

You would have had a lot of ad room on your uni in your day.

[Tasan]

I agree with Jeeber. The other one should be ignored, because this one came with the pic. I've been looking for a pic of that all day. Well, okay, not all day, just in two different places, but you get it!

[WSUCougar]

Sorry about that. Ah, well. I must have lost it in the sea of weird Vexroid news stories.

[Cecil Fielder]

this should qualify as a weird Vexroid news story as well!!!!

[Huckleberry]

Normally I don't do much complaining about the plastering of advertisements around baseball parks as I recall that in the old days the outfield wall was a non-stop advertisement board worse than any little league field. But the bases? I think that's going too far.

[rkmsuf]

I don't get the benefit. Who can even see that from the stands?

[Fonzie]

For those interested in complaining (not that it'll do much good, I fear) here's the address & phone number for Bud:

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
Phone: (212) 931-7800

[GrantDawg]

Does this movie really need anymore hype?

[Young Drachma]

Apparently, baseball can advertise like this to further defile the game because of a paltry sum of cash. But the damn owners are too stupid to allow someone to buy the Expos. They want a fully funded public stadium, Selig says. Someone needs to put a photo of his face on a base, so players can step on it.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I am really not seeing what the big problem with this is. Putting the logo on the bases is kind of cool and innovative.

I really don't see how this defiles the game or lessens it in any way.

Go Sam Raimi! Native Son of Michigan!

[Ajaxab]

Sure baseball has been a business for a long, long time and why there's such an outcry about this particular incident, I'm not quite sure.

But aren't we exposed to enough commercials in a day? Why do we have to suffer the perpetual barrage of companies trying to sell us crap we don't need in the name of satisfying some deeply felt need the product won't satisfy?

The average American suffers under enough debt as is without being continually tempted to incur more of it from the increasing sponsoring that goes on in our world. To suggest that the cause of the average American's debt has nothing to do with advertising would be ludicrous. I am happy to see that at least some people want to halt one manifestation of advertising with this Spiderman thing.

[Young Drachma]

It's not about the ads, really. Baseball is the sport where ads used to line the outfield walls, like several rows up. Still do, but not as blatantly. I think the issue is on the bases. Sure, its fun. It's different. But what next? Product placement on players' ass pants?

I was saying that Selig would do this, give in for a few million bucks - pocket change really - when the game won't move a team, because he wants a city to give them a publicly funded stadium. That to me, seems ridiculous and shows what the game has been devolved to. $$$

[JeeberD]

Heard on the radio tonight that there will be pink ribbons on the bases for Mother's Day this weekend and blue ribbons on Father's Day weekend...

[Fonzie]

I just read an article at the NYTimes.com which stated that this promotion is less of an "advertising-Spider-Man-2-to-baseball-fans" deal and more of a "market-baseball-to-young-Spider-Man-2 fans" deal. More specifically, the aim of this Spider Man arrangement is to get younger kids, ages 6-18, into the ballparks and, ultimately, interested in baseball.

This all makes a little more sense when viewed from that perspective, as MLB has long been concerned about losing youngsters to football and basketball. Still, I have to think they could have a Spidey tie-in that didn't involve altering the ages-old white bases.

[JasonC23]

Thank goodness MLB is putting Spider-Man 2 ads on the bases...otherwise, I never would have know that this small, independent, word-of-mouth-campaign movie was coming out!

[SirFozzie]

Man, I'm just glad that there hasn't been a parody thread, such as "Oh, Brother, The Afoci in bed with Subby".

Hopefully by posting this I can claim firsties and the right to cancel any such thread that now appears

[Cecil Fielder]

the point isn't whether or not little logos on the bases will be seen... it's how much talk has been generated about baseball AND Spiderman because of this decision.... every sports talk radio show, every sports message board, etc, etc, everyone's talking about it, and the campaign, while still a month away, has already succeeded.