Chico's Bail Bonds meets the Red Sox

Japanese baseball teams have been named for businesses for years. I think the Orix team was an example, and IIRC so were the Yomiuri Giants (Sadaharu Oh's team). The Giants, I think, were named for a department store.

It was an ad for "Spider-Man 2" on the bases. And Selig didn't put the kibosh on it until the public voiced its displeasure.
Say what you want about George Steinbrenner, but the guy did get one thing right — keeping the appearance of the Yankees traditional. He didn't change the uniform every few years or sell naming rights to the stadium. It helps that the Yankees are their own billion-dollar brand, sure, but at least he didn't sell out in that regard.
One thing I've never gotten, though, is how the same people who complain about things like the Under Armour ad on Wrigley's walls usually have no problem with wall-to-wall billboards in minor league parks. On the lower levels, where there's ads for local dentists or banks, it's quaint. On the national level, where there's ads for clothing lines or airlines, it's selling out? Makes no sense to me.

 

The ads have always been on the outfield walls at minor league stadiums. It's a growing trend in MLB.

 

Agrees ...

 

Someone posted it on a different thread, but any European hockey game would look good in this thread.

 

It's not new in Major League Baseball either.

 

NASCAR and Bobby Knight being far ahead of the curve.

 

Yea, I know the older stadiums had it on the walls, but it then disappeared and now it's back.
The Memorial, County, and stadia of that era never had signing on the walls.

 

You guys haven't watched much European hockey lately:

 

Every softball team in America is wondering what the big deal is.

 

I think Yomiuri is the company that owns a large newspaper in Japan.

The advertising has always been done when there are MLB teams in Japan. It is accepted over there since the name of the teams are part of the thing.

From a marketing point of view, there would be a couple of problems with doing that in the US. The most obvious is the tradition. Another problem would be that if there were advertising on shirts, fewer people might be willing to pay more than $100 for authentic jerseys. I think the team makes good money with the merchandise and licensing value of the team name and city.

 

All the uproar over stadium advertising became amusing to me when I first watch "When It Was A Game" on HBO and they showed clips of Fenway Park in the old days with the Green Monster absolutely plastered with ads. Do that today and people would act like you're spray-painting the Sistene Chapel.

 

When Yawkey owned the team, the only advertisement they had on the wall was for the Jimmy Fund. Before the 60s, there was probably more advertising on the outfield walls than there is today.