As most of my regular readers know, I don't watch a lot of baseball. Mostly because my local teams don't allow their channel on streaming services. And since COVID, I haven't really watched hockey either. And I've never been a basketball fan. So I'm a bit behind when it comes to the details of current sports.
Something I noticed when I happened upon some playoff baseball last season: the ad patches on the shoulders - and now even the batting helmets - of the players. It's been my opinion that team wordmarks on baseball jerseys have been diluted and limited to plain cursive, which is boring. But the uniform has never been invaded by corporate logos until now.
I mean, there's plenty of advertising in the ballparks as it is...
And the arenas and venues have been corrupted with company names for years.
From Wikipedia:
Rate Field (formerly named Comiskey Park II, U.S. Cellular Field and Guaranteed Rate Field ... the park opened as Comiskey Park on April 18, 1991, taking its name from the original Comiskey Park, the team's home since 1910.
Originally called Comiskey Park, the stadium was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003, after Chicago-based telecommunications company U.S. Cellular purchased the naming rights at US$68 million for 20 years. U.S. Cellular would later pay $13 million to end the agreement seven years early, saving an estimated $10.8 million.
The stadium's next name, Guaranteed Rate Field, was announced on October 31, 2016, after the Chicago-based private residential mortgage company Guaranteed Rate purchased the naming rights in a 13-year deal. It was later revealed that Guaranteed Rate would pay $20.4 million over ten years for the 13-year agreement. This translates to an average payment of $2.4 million, less than U.S. Cellular's yearly payment of $3.4 million as well as below the average MLB naming rights payment of $3.6 million at the time of the deal's signing.
Coinciding with Guaranteed Rate's rebranding as Rate, the Sox announced the ballpark would henceforth be known as Rate Field on December 17, 2024.
So there are already millions of dollars being spent on just the names of the places. And some of the sources are rather bizarre. Why do these high powered finance companies and obscure firms advertise to the general public anyway? Most of us have to look up who the heck the company is anyway, so how is that advantageous?
The Phoenix Suns' arena became Footprint Center in the summer of 2021. It has previously been known as Talking Stick Resort Arena, U.S. Airways Center and America West Arena. It is now called PHX Arena.
Glad that didn't last long...at least it's sorta relevant to the actual place now.
But all that isn't enough. Now the ads are infecting uniforms.
Soccer has been doing this for years.
So has international hockey...
As has international and minor league baseball...
It's creeping into the American pro level sports, like the NBA.
And now baseball is heading down the road from this:
to this:
But is this what the teams really want? Not only is it hideous and disgusting, but it's blasphemous to the history of the sport. Is this kind of marketing even effective? I would be inclined to say that I would hold a much less positive opinion of any company that would participate in the defacing of pro sports like this.
What are your thoughts? Has it gone too far? Aren't all the billboards, venue names, redundant ad announcements on TV, and corporate influence on the sports just a bit too much?
Bonus points for anyone who knows the company references in the post title.
