The Marketization of the Milwaukee Brewers.

[Mike Felder]

Did anyone mention the Tundra Territory out in right center? How many standing room spots do you think the Brewers gave away in order to put that up?

 

And it's somewhat related: when did teams go back to putting ads all over the outfield walls? I know the really old stadiums had them, but then they were gone for a long time. I know that County Stadium's wall was bare until the early 90s, and in the 80s, it seemed like the thing to do at most stadiums was to put everybody's logo on the outfield wall (something I kind of miss), not advertisements. Was there a rule change, or did everybody realize at about the same time in the 90s, "Hey we can make money off of this!"?

[JJHardy7]

But can't everyone else do this stuff too? Then we're back at square one. We do it, the Cubs do it, the Yankees do it and they still have more revenue. If some teams are doing it we can't NOT do it, but it's not really a competitive advantage.

 

It's a business and I agree with you. It doesn't bother me at all, but what would bother me is if we didn't have the companies supporting the Brewers. With more people at the park, watching on tv, and listening on the radio there will be more companies 'buying' the Brewers. It's nowhere near the level of minor league parks and their outfield walls.

[twobrewers]

Did anyone mention the Tundra Territory out in right center? How many standing room spots do you think the Brewers gave away in order to put that up?

I mentioned it. I hate the Tundra Territory - only because it is always empty!

 

They gave away tons of standing room only spots - for 30 seats which only usually have 7 people. I recently bough a Toyota and tried to get them to throw in Tundra Territory seats. I was told you had to enter a drawing to win the seats. Unfortunately most of the people who win them, don't attend the game.

[trwi7]

It's $1,800 for 24 tickets in Toyota Tundra Territory for regular priced games and $2,160 for Marquee games. I'm guessing they make more money with that then they would with not having it and selling standing room only.

[Thwarted By the Thracians]

I just hope to see the Brewers score a bunch of West Bend Mutual Insurance runs.

Ahem, I believe they are Badger Mutual Insurance runs.

[tosabrewfan]

I just hope to see the Brewers score a bunch of West Bend Mutual Insurance runs.

Ahem, I believe they are Badger Mutual Insurance runs.

Right you are. West Bend Mutual sponsors the left field wall scoreboard. I think it's the Silver Lining.

[PrimeTime955]

The sponsors make the game fun to me. I find my friends and my self constantly yelling "let's get some Badger Mutual insurance runs" in our softball games like someone brought up the Hardware Hank thing...this stuff is what Brewer Baseball games have been about. When Dave Bush is getting rocked in whatever inning I can't count the number of times I've yelled for a U.S. Cellular call to the bullpen. Learn to live with it because it helps pay the bills.

[mothershipconnection]

Count me as one who wants MORE sponsorships, and not because the team gets more revenue. Rather, it sucks when a team has like 3 sponsors because EVERY commercial opportunity will be a broken record. If they have 20 sponsors each has less of an opportunity to make you sick and angry.

[snyttri]

Tons of advertising is good if it equates with money spent on the team as has been the case recently in Milwaukee. I'm glad things were more low key when the Brewers were dumping salaries. Teams can probably always sell advertising if they let it go cheap enough. College summer league games in Madison (the Mallards) are bursting at the seams with advertising but it doesn't seem to bother people.

[crewcrazy]

The Northwoods League teams especially need those advertising partnerships to pay the bills...it's pretty expensive to keep a park running all summer, especially if you sometimes have trouble drawing people to the park.

 

I don't mind the advertising at Miller Park, considering the park itself is pretty much a giant advertisement for Miller Brewing. The gas pump is a little tacky (what do gas pumps have to do with hitting home runs?), but at the same time, it's kind of cool to be able to look up and see how many HR's the team has hit this year. Depending on where you sit (and how good your eyesight is), you don't even notice most of the advertising. I guess I would mind more if the sponsors were for really tacky products or companies, like in Major League 2 when Dorn sells every bit of advertising he can because he's running the team into the ground -- "any of you folks having trouble finding a good proctologist might want to come down here and check out the area around the 375 foot sign..."

[RightFieldCoder]

what do gas pumps have to do with hitting home runs?

I actually like that play on words. Citgo-- C-it-go -- See it go. [political]Although I would never get gas from them, even though their station is one block down from my house[/political] And iirc, Yahoo/SBC/ATT park has a Citgo gas pump to count homeruns also.

 

I think Ricoh should get a refund for sponsoring the so called defense the last couple of years.

 

Also, the team doesn't get all of this money. I believe they only get the ad money from the things sold at the park. Aflak, Ricoh, Usingers, Hardware Hank, etc go to the media outlets that broadcast the game. So FSN-WI is getting richer while still paying below market value for the games.

[pretendastronaut]

The irony is, with all the repeating of the marketing slogans, that all the advertising is working if its stuck so well into so many people's heads in this thread.

 

Drat! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

I do hate the over advertised world we live in now, but I do understand the necessary evil portion of it as well. Advertising is unavoidable, much as we may hate it sometimes, and much as we've become much more savvy about avoiding it.

[YostInfection]

Robin19 wrote:

---

 

Also, the team doesn't get all of this money. I believe they only get the ad money from the things sold at the park. Aflak, Ricoh, Usingers, Hardware Hank, etc go to the media outlets that broadcast the game. So FSN-WI is getting richer while still paying below market value for the games.

FWIW, it depends if the team controls the inventory on the broadcasts. Most professional sports teams control the radio rights and let the station sell a certain amount of spots in-game. TV is a whole different animal. Most teams have zero control of their TV, especially if it is on cable. Anything that is over-the-air, might be controlled by the team and they would get the revenue generated from those telecasts.

 

[bork]

Rather, it sucks when a team has like 3 sponsors because EVERY commercial opportunity will be a broken record. If they have 20 sponsors each has less of an opportunity to make you sick and angry.

Good point. Reminds me of Marquette basketball, where you hear the same three commericals all season long.

[TauPentaRei]

Here's my 2 cents and some of y'all with a longer tenure on the board have heard this before:

 

I have no problem with the advertising (is fretting and / or a letter writing campaign going to do anything about it?), but I do have a problem when the quality of the product suffers because those in the ivory tower are squeezing blood from a stone.

 

#1: Miller Park's original design called for a unique, full service, cradle-to-cradle brew pub restaurant in left field. Think Milwaukee Ale House or Rock Bottom Brewery. I saw the drawings; hell, I estimated them. There was even going to be the big grain hoppers suspended in the Bernie's Chalet area that contained the hops, malts, etc. used for making beer at the microbrewery. Can you imagine one of Braun's more prodigious home run blasts gonging off of the malt hopper and leaving a dent?

 

#2: How long did the manually operated out-of-town scoreboard last before giving way to the digital light up version? The modification of right field (ridiculous distance) to include the Mercedes Benz picnic area chain link fence eliminated the space for the scoreboard. Now with only half of the outfield wall to work with, you need to do it digitally so you can cycle through all the scores. What a tasteless debacle that actually has served to disrupt my viewing pleasure.

 

Both of these "design" decisions increased the revenue stream via leases from national companies. Both of these decisions also downgraded the quality of the facility from 'unique baseball stadium' in the direction of 'homogenized corporate ribbon board NBA game'

 

I'll stomach the advertising, but please preserve the identity and atmosphere.

[BadgerBen in KC]

I know everybody reaches their boiling point at some point, but this is far from a new thing. When I was little, I was a member of the Brewers/Pepsi Fan Club. It's just part of the deal.

The only ad in Miller Park that bothers me is the Waste Management ad. I don't have any feelings about the company, but is that the appropriate ad to place right above the Brewers' bullpen?

[tristarscoop]

The ad I always think is weird is the UWM one. I can't imagine that's a cheap ad space and I guess it just seems odd to me for a public institution to spend that kind of cash. I think it might pay for itself if we were nationally televised more, because the name would get out there more, but since it's mostly in-state broadcasts, it seems like it's not worthwhile.

 

The only thing about the radio ads that gets me is when Jim and Bob are so busy talking that it's an inning later and you hear "If we'd have hit for the cycle last inning Mr. X would have won..."

[Dragonbait]

As far as the old manual scoreboards, I DONT miss them. They we're never updated in a timely fasion.

[RightFieldCoder]

IIRC, Mark A didn't like the look of the manual scoreboard. He wanted to get rid of them for that reason. The digital scoreboard was put up as a replacement.

 

I have to wonder about the UWM ads. There are a lot of cross promotions going on with them. UWM has a homecoming game at The Keg, UWM usually plays the 2nd game of a double header at The Keg once a year, and they started the baseball class. I wonder if that is a "free" ad because of 1) community consciousness 2) UWM would just about sell out the place on their homecoming game.

[Patrick425]

Hardware Hank? Uecker doesn't do that any more? It probably has not been done in years, but it's so ingrained my memory, that it seems like I heard him do the "You've got a lot more going for you with Hank...Hardware Hank" thing just yesterday.

[Invader3K]

I could swear I've heard the Hardware Hank line very recently, but it could very well be an "ingrained memory" thing.

 

I think it's great that the Brewers can actually get all these sponsors, and are probably getting a pretty penny out of all of them at this point. That probably wasn't the case 5-10 years ago.

 

I also don't miss the manual scoreboards...I did kind of like them, but to be honest, it felt like they were trying to do this forced "old school charm" thing on a ballpark that is about as modern as it can possibly get. The LED scoreboard is a better fit with the park, combined with the ribbon board.

[pretendastronaut]

I'm positive Uecker still does Hardware Hank. I've listened to more games on the radio this year than I ever have, and I know I'm hearing that one.

[tristarscoop]

I'll second that. I've heard it more than a few times this season.

[olsonnet]

Uecker still does Hardware Hank at the end of every game when he lists the sponsors.

 

As for replacing the out-of-town scoreboard, going digital also allows West Bend Insurance to swap out the scores (which they have their logo abov) with animated advertising between innings.

 

I have no problem with 99% of the advertising. If I thought it was worth it I'd pay for some signage for my small company.

 

The only sponsorship I cringe at is on Sundays when it's "God Bless America.... sponsored by Coins of America"