Ads On the Uniforms or No More Fenway Park...Which Do You Prefer?
Yesterday the Red Sox ownership announced they would put an advertisement for EMC Corp on the uniform during their trip to Japan. The Dirt Dogs site ran the headline "Nothing Is Sacred." I am not that concerned about putting the ads on as long as it is only for the Japan trip and it does not lead to a permanent thing. John Henry talked about the difficulty for the Red Sox to keep up financially with the Yankees and Mets, both of whom will have new ballparks soon, and the need to find new revenue sources. I can tolerate an ad as long as the current ownership group continues to support and renovate Fenway Park. If the trade off for ad free uniforms is the destruction of "America's Most Beloved Ballpark" then I choose ads. Ads are as much a part of baseball as hot dogs. The first professional teams were playing for businesses, the Green Monster used to be covered with advertisements, and ballparks are now named after companies. It is not a perfect scenario but it beats raising ticket prices.
2 comments:
This is a very interesting development... you look back at some Red Sox tv classics and see the green monster being a uniform green color. Now of course we have advertising. Maybe the future of baseball will be like European soccer when it comes to jersey advertising.
But if you go back before the Tom Yawkey days it was covered with more ads than it has now. I don't think the fans will go for the full ads on the uniforms, remember the outcry about the ads on the bases a few years back? It would be pretty funny to see a viagra ad on the Yankee jersey.
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