11/05/24
October 04, 2006
"The Red Sox were in the playoffs every year from Mohegan Sun to Citgo.": ...selling the naming rights to a season may be one of the next money-raising gambits by financier John Henry’s business savvy ownership group...
posted by BullpenPro to baseball at 08:42 PM - 37 comments
Yeah, at this point Depends Undergarments might class things up. Bad enough the pre-game, post-game and post-post-game (!) sponsors get their name plastered over every broadcast. This means every time TC, Hazel Mae or Tina Cerrvasio opens their big mouths (I'm looking at you, Tina), we're going to have this unreal moment where they describe the current year as though that abstract concept were owned by a corporation. I don't really have a problem with the concept in the abstract. I do have a problem with the implementation. It's worrisome to me that people are able to detatch themselves from reality and shill things all for the sake of one dollar more. At some point on the revenue curve the Red Sox company is going to get bit back. I already saw a game on NESN this year where NESN was doing the national broadcast trick of projecting ads over the behind home plate ad. Think about that for a sec: you buy an advertising space because it will be seen by millions 82 times a year and all of a sudden you find out it's in-stadium advertising only, or doesn't apply during Sox-Yankees tilts unless you pay a few dollars more. Why not just break W.B. Mason's legs? Then that asshole wouldn't be dancing on my TV so much. I hope something occurs that leads to Dr. Charles Steinberg leaving town for good.
posted by yerfatma at 06:09 AM on October 05, 2006
I don't know why you can't get behind the Herb Chambers Lexus Ford Chrysler Pontiac Land Rover Peugeot Toyota Volkswagon Schwinn Kia Mitsubishi Bentley Nissan Suburu Buick Mercedes Oldsmobile Edsel Chevy Yugo Pre-Game Show Sponsored by Cialis and Budweiser and FW Webb coming to you LIVE from the Friendly's Fribble Studios, yerfatma.
posted by jerseygirl at 06:58 AM on October 05, 2006
Hey, they got to pay for those outrageous salaries somehow.
posted by texasred at 09:03 AM on October 05, 2006
Why not just break W.B. Mason's legs? Then that asshole wouldn't be dancing on my TV so much. That's hilarious... Frankly, though, I don't mind Henry et al squeezing every dollar out that they can, as long as they put that money back into the operation and payroll.
posted by Venicemenace at 09:04 AM on October 05, 2006
Hey, they got to pay for those outrageous salaries somehow. I'm guessing their cut of the national TV contract and the highest ticket price in the game probably help cover.
posted by yerfatma at 09:26 AM on October 05, 2006
Hey, they got to pay for those outrageous salaries somehow. It's the Fenway Franks. Maybe they should brand those too. Fenway Franks, now presented by Pfizer. $6.00
posted by YukonGold at 09:44 AM on October 05, 2006
Yuh. If I go to a game with my wife, buy nothing but the two kinds of shit beer they offer and the tab comes to $76 (Game 3, 2005 ALDS; I assume prices have only gone up), I'm not going to worry about them covering payroll that month.
posted by yerfatma at 10:03 AM on October 05, 2006
First of all, I support any move that makes baseball even more esoteric and hard to understand. Why not divorce seasons from sequential numbers? It would be the birth of a whole new website (or at least a new section on Baseball Reference). Especially since no one company could possibly afford to sponsor the league for an entire season. So you'd have to remember the Brewers had a memorable run to the playoffs in American Family, which was the same season the Padres just missed the wild card, except that was US Bank or something like that. All the years would be cross-referenced with the sponsors of seasons by different teams. "I remember in Citibank, when A-Rod, presented by Proctor & Gamble, made some slick plays at Disney base and batted .306/.427/.660, but Jeter's intangibles, presented by Hanes, brought the Yanks their 1st Miller Series championship since Sony!" Second: If I go to a game with my wife, buy nothing but the two kinds of shit beer they offer and the tab comes to $76 Don't you have tailgating in Massachusetts?
posted by rocketman at 10:18 AM on October 05, 2006
Don't you have tailgating in Massachusetts? No where to tailgate around Fenway.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:23 AM on October 05, 2006
If I go to a game with my wife, buy nothing but the two kinds of shit beer they offer and the tab comes to $76 Don't you have tailgating in Massachusetts? Tailgating is a football thing. If you try it before a baseball game, you're just a drunk getting a load on. p.s. yerfatma, I know you didn't get parking with that.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:33 AM on October 05, 2006
Who cares, anyway? It's BawwSton.:)
posted by texasred at 10:37 AM on October 05, 2006
Parking - anywhere from $30 to $50 depending on game and location unless you take the T.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:47 AM on October 05, 2006
Tailgating is a football thing. If you try it before a baseball game, you're just a drunk getting a load on. Well, there's an army of "drunks getting a load on" before every Brewers home game. Though we in Wisconsin don't need much prompting to drink. No where to tailgate around Fenway. This, if true, is a tragedy. You can't find a few square feet of sidewalk? You only need enough space for a portable grill and a lawnchair. You could set the condiment tray on the back of the truck, and even nix the chair if space was tight. I feel like a dumb okey from flyover country.
posted by rocketman at 10:50 AM on October 05, 2006
This, if true, is a tragedy. It's not exactly true. What's true is that there's nowhere legal and appropriate to tailgate. Fenway Park is located between college campuses (the urban kind, not the leafy-open-spaces-out-in-the-country kind), a major hospital complex, and a densely populated residential neighborhood. It's really hemmed-in and traveled through by tons of people in addition to the people going to the game. That "few square feet of sidewalk" is in use by many people who, rather than going to tie one on and go to the game, are trying to get home after a long day of work and who really don't want to walk their tired feet around someone's impromptu sidewalk party.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:57 AM on October 05, 2006
There's no where to do that either, rocketman. Middle of the city. No public drinking. There's likely a law on open fires too, if I were to wager. Technically, yes you could put the condiment tray on the back of the truck, but you'd be paying anywhere from $30-$50 to park that truck and sit there with your mustard and pickles while you can't grill anything or drink. It's really not as bad as it sounds. The way we're describing it, it sounds like a suckfest. Its actually a pretty fun atmosphere around the park, generally.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:58 AM on October 05, 2006
It's definitely a nice atmosphere around the park, but it's one more step in the Disneyfication of life. I don't want to get off on a rant here . . . but this is one of my bete noires in life. We've given up Equality of Opportunity for Equality of Outcome. No one goes to places they've never heard of. You go to Chili's1 in every goddamn town because you are guaranteed the exact same meal. Sure it's just ok, but you'll be fine. The Red Sox have taken over the area around the park, under the auspices of creating a "family-friendly environment"2, for the purposes of collecting a higher % of the revenues generated by games. And everybody's fine with it because you only come down once or twice a year from Vermont to take your kid and who wants to get puked on by some collefge kid or verbally assaulted by Murph the Turph double-parked in his D.P.W. truck? But we're losing something. And we just don't care as long as the guy next to me doesn't wind up with a better experience than I do. If we both find ourselves in the same mediocre margarita, that's fine. We can be miserable together. I just don't want anyone getting a better deal or having a better time. I realize this is all a gross oversimplification and veers dangerously close to street corner ranting, but the fact you can't think about player stats within a half-mile radius of Fenway without some shmuck in a Sox windbreaker putting his hand out for licensing fees sucks ass. 1. I'm as guilty of this as anyone else. 2. I.e., no tail-gating
posted by yerfatma at 11:12 AM on October 05, 2006
Tailgating is a football thing. If you try it before a baseball game, you're just a drunk getting a load on. Yea, nobody drinks before a Sox game. The Tequila Rain, Boston Beer Works, The Tiki Room and Bill's, to name a few, are pretty much empty before the game.
posted by GOD at 11:25 AM on October 05, 2006
Bad enough the pre-game, post-game and post-post-game (!) sponsors get their name plastered over every broadcast. Add to that the "Remy and Orsillo Show" constantly plugging Remy's web site and the merchandise sold thereon. Yerfatma and all of the fans of the great Fenway money machine who have commented on this post seem to follow a common theme. That is, "I can't stand the way they have commercialized the entire experience, but if I turn my back, who else do I have to root for?" I'm in that same category. (This commentary has been brought to you by any of the several arthritis remedies, hypertension medications, and other items for age-related disorders that I have the pleasure of requiring.)
posted by Howard_T at 11:25 AM on October 05, 2006
The income-generating tactics being employed by Henry and Lucchino are interesting, creative, and mildly troubling. They are setting conventions into place that have increased palatability to the fans and media because they have the air of "Save Fenway" about them. Eventually, though, the owners are going to ditch Fenway and these conventions will be retained by rote. Rocketman's example has a touch of hyperbole, but I can envision a time when we can't remember what year Manny retired, "but I remember it was the Pfizer year." On the other hand, it's easy to overreact. Baseball has been an industry for a long time, and we've been hearing plugs from broadcasters for so long and watching commercials or so long (since Bulova watches in 1941) that this move is unlikely to be noticed much in the dirty water. And eventually there will a nostalgia attached to it, just as there is to the old Miller Lite or Schaeffer beer ads. On preview: my girlfriend got sick from Chili's food last time we went. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore, or responsibility for their negligence. The whole world has gone right down the tubes. Free dessert. Who needs free dessert when you're puking? Free Maalox and a round of margaritas for everyone with vomit on their pants, I say.
posted by BullpenPro at 11:31 AM on October 05, 2006
"I can't stand the way they have commercialized the entire experience, but if I turn my back, who else do I have to root for?" You might be reading a bit too much into it.
posted by jerseygirl at 11:32 AM on October 05, 2006
I'm totally on board with yerfatma and it ain't just Fenway. But unfortunately, my hypocrytical ass will cheer yerfatma on, giving a big a "HELL YEAH!" and a "Fight the Power" even as I stand in line for Space Mountain. I suck. We all suck for letting this happen.
posted by SummersEve at 11:34 AM on October 05, 2006
Yea, nobody drinks before a Sox game. The Tequila Rain, Boston Beer Works, The Tiki Room and Bill's, to name a few, are pretty much empty before the game. People drive their trucks into Boston *ptui* Beer Works, fire up the grill and start drinking? That's news to me! He-who-would-be-GOD, there are plenty of football stadiums that have set aside tailgating areas in parking lots. It seems to work well and it's a grand old party for everybody. Fenway Park doesn't have such areas to set aside, nor does Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium or any number of other MLB teams which -- being somewhat older than NFL teams and located in cities -- just don't have the real estate. Plenty of drinking takes place before the game, in bars, which is where it's appropriate to be drinking when you just don't have the space to spread out and tailgate with a bunch of like-minded people. Drinking in bars != tailgating. Agreed?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:38 AM on October 05, 2006
I think the reason baseball isn't associated with tailgaiting as much as football is that firing up a hot grill is a lot more enticing in November than it is in July or August. That said, I have seen a fair number of people tailgating in the garages and lots around Yankee Stadium, particularly in October. Not like football, but it happens.
posted by BullpenPro at 11:43 AM on October 05, 2006
the auspices of creating a "family-friendly environment" Wow. Maybe I'm just a bad parent, or maybe we're desensitized to drunks, but I don't think twice about bringing my daughter with to Brewers games and the accompanying tailgate. We've given up Equality of Opportunity for Equality of Outcome. yerfatma, I agree with you entirely, but it can only go so far before it swings back in the other direction. Hopefully soon. I live within crawling distance of a minor-league ballpark, but I seldom go because the experience is so tightly controlled, sponsored so heavily by advertising: every half-inning there's some manufactured "fun" sponsored by some business, the opening lineup promotes an insurance company, etc. These ads help make the team possible and viable, and I can appreciate that, but it makes me long for my modest apartment 6 years ago, when I could stand on my fire escape after work and watch the high school league games. There were zero expectations, the view (off the first base line) was unobstructed, and the beer was priced right. Good times.
posted by rocketman at 11:43 AM on October 05, 2006
I'm totally on board with yerfatma and it ain't just Fenway. Everything in question here is outside the immediate seating area, except the Monster Seats and I don't think many will bash those. But there are the little things that will always keep it Fenway. If that walk up the ramp during batting practice doesn't change, I'm ok. Having said that I go once a year and am ok with having a choice of 17 different types of sausage at the new stands below the bleachers, so I guess I'm the target market.
posted by YukonGold at 11:55 AM on October 05, 2006
Plenty of drinking takes place before the game, in bars, which is where it's appropriate to be drinking when you just don't have the space to spread out and tailgate with a bunch of like-minded people. Drinking in bars != tailgating. Agreed? Missed my point lil-brown-bat. Somebody said nobody drinks before a baseball game, I was making a point that the bars around Fenway are mobbed before a game.
posted by GOD at 01:01 PM on October 05, 2006
Somebody said nobody drinks before a baseball game I don't think anybody said that.
posted by rocketman at 01:10 PM on October 05, 2006
Nope. No one said that. I'd say you missed lbb's point, which was that the football-style pregame ritual known as tailgating doesn't happen around Fenway or probably any other park in the middle of a city.
posted by yerfatma at 01:20 PM on October 05, 2006
Back on topic: I feel uniquely qualified to say that this idea is ridiculous. :)
posted by hincandenza at 01:22 PM on October 05, 2006
rocketman -- as someone who has been to both Miller Park and Fenway, I can certainly verify that nothing of the sort that goes on at Miller Park goes on around Fenway. The key factor in all of this, though, is not urban v. suburban, but parking lots. For instance, US Cellular, which is in the middle of Chicago, has tailgating because it is surrounded by parking lots, while Wrigley Field, also in the middle of Chicago, does not have tailgating because it is in a residential area without a lot of parking. And taking a kid to a tailgate in Milwaukee is absolutely appropriate -- I've always found it to be a very fun, communal, even family-oriented environment.
posted by holden at 02:11 PM on October 05, 2006
Nope. No one said that. I'd say you missed lbb's point, which was that the football-style pregame ritual known as tailgating doesn't happen around Fenway or probably any other park in the middle of a city. You question God. Back on topic: I feel uniquely qualified to say that this idea is ridiculous. :) If the money is going to keep a contender on the field, and keep ticket prices from getting any higher,I'm all for it. If the money is just lining the owners pockets, then no.
posted by GOD at 02:13 PM on October 05, 2006
But there's no way to know which it is, except in the obvious case of a team like the Pirates. Is the Red Sox ownership lining their pockets? Possibly, though it's hard to argue with the quality of the teams they've been fielding.
posted by rocketman at 02:30 PM on October 05, 2006
You question God. 12 years of Catholic school left me doing that and pointing out the lack of a question mark in your sentence. If God is fallible, does this mean the pope might screw up someday?
posted by yerfatma at 02:35 PM on October 05, 2006
Tailgating at baseball games just doesn't feel the same as doing it before a football game, although I should rephrase that because I have never done it. Anyone who has never been to Fenway Park evidently doesn't know that after you pay your $30.00 bucks to park, you barely have enough room to get out of your car, never mind trying to set up a grill, cook what you're going to eat, and open up your trunk or dropping your tailgate,depending what your driving. By the time you did all that,as soon as you cracked your first beer,the Boston P.D got you in handcuffs,and the next thing you know, your busted for drinking in public. No room for that near Fenway. But Gillette Stadium before a Pats game, now thats a different story.
posted by Ghastly1 at 03:50 PM on October 05, 2006
which was that the football-style pregame ritual known as tailgating doesn't happen around Fenway or probably any other park in the middle of a city. Your not allowed to tailgate at Dodger Stadium or Edison Field (Angels), which is total B.S. However, I went to a Charger's game last year and people were definately tailgaiting and the stadium is definately right in the middle of the city.
posted by LA-4-Life at 05:08 PM on October 05, 2006
Wait, people were tailgating at a football game? Maybe we're all upside-down on this.
posted by yerfatma at 05:12 PM on October 05, 2006
Seriously, do these people take all their ideas from reading Infinite Jest or what?