Minor League Baseball

Baseball Playing The Global Card, But Do Most Know?

August 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

There is perhaps no more global sport on the professional level than baseball. At some level of the professional game, over 35 countries on five continents are represented, and the number grows each year.  Major league Baseball International spends millions developing players around the globe, and the results can be seen in recent weeks, when Chinese Taipei edged Australia for the World Junior title, Cuba won the World University championship, and this week the Women’s World Cup is being played in Venezuela. The coming Little League World Series will also have its global look and later in the fall millions will tune in to watch the World Series.  Yet for all its domestic success, it is basketball (this week announcing regular season games in London between New Jersey and Toronto) and soccer (with Chinese investor Kenny Huang looking to add to his work in hoops) continues to grab headlines that baseball should also have.  Why is that?

Asking Forgiveness Not Permission: The Dallas Braden Tee’s

July 6, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

As baseball heads into the All-Star break, teams with distressed inventory continue to find innovative ways to rally fans and generate buzz, whether or not they are doing well on the field.  Case in point   is this week, where the Oakland A’s are looking to create some buzz and fan support around the visiting World Champion New York Yankees making their one trip to the Bay Area. Yes the Yanks are always a draw, but there remain distressed tickets to be had and a team to be supported after the Yanks leave town.  The solution?  Create and sell t-shirts for fans re-addressing pitcher Dallas Braden’s dust up with Alex Rodriguez earlier this season, when Rodriguez crossed the mound on his way back to the dugout at Yankee Stadium, and Braden took offense publicly at the move.

Tie Traditional Sport to Gen-X: Give em skateboards…

June 27, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

The traditional major team sports continue to fight the battle as to how they can continue to engage a younger audience that is growing up less with stick and ball and more with thrill-seeking individual sports these days.  As the X-Games and Gravity Games rise in popularity for their generation, baseball, hoops and football have to find ways to keep those young people engaged in some way, if not always playing then coming to games or following casually.  A recent piece in Fast Company provided a nice little look into one way to provide Gen-X’ers with a little incentive to follow team sports…a branded skateboard giveaway.

Majoring In The Minors: Lake County Joins The LeBron Fun…

June 24, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

So with the first day of summer comes a new rite of passage in select NBA cities…the beg LeBron sweepstakes.  Mayor’s, celebrities, fans, websites, media from sea to shining sea have come up with ploy after ploy to gain attention as LeBron James decides where to next ply his trade.  The recruitment James missed by forgoing college is now in full swing, with the stakes for some franchises who have cast aside previous seasons to build cap space now hanging in the balance, not to mention the dollars and equity of thousands of season ticketholders who have cast their lot and bet of James coming to save franchises in L.A., New York, Chicago, Cleveland and points in between. The recruiting has run from mainstream to viral, and will cost organizations a good chunk of change with the hopes of bringing an ROI to pass along to their partners and fans.

Making Chicken Salad…Some Good Examples

June 8, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

One of the great challenges in publicity is trying to find stories when sometimes there really aren’t any.  Some of it may be made up of pitches saved for rainy days when writers or other media are looking for things to fill inches, blogs or video files.  Some of it may be trying to spin something positive in times that are less than positive.  Some of it may just be adding color or getting buzz to keep brand name relevant.

CHL, IHL Merger Makes Great Sense…

June 7, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

It wasn’t widely covered this week, but the merger between the CHL and the IHL to effectively create a joint program and a de-facto North American “AA” level of hockey was a very smart move and could be a very financially viable one for the minor league clubs at that level in the sport.  In reality baseball is the only sport that has figured out a business model that makes business sense for a viable minor league system.  The NBA has made strides with the D-League but it is nowehre near successful from a financial standpoint yet.  The NFL attempts have been less than fruitful (thank you college football) and the overtures the UFL have made now appear dead. Hockey does  OK in some markets in fits and spurts, but it is not the social sport for the casual fan that minor league baseball is, and the higher overhead combined with limited interest has slowed growth. There is also the alphabet soup of leagies and affiliations with no real centralized plan.  Last week’s announcement, to help in effect create one combined strong minor super league…connected but limited in travel costs…may help to finally right the system for hockey, and in many ways help to alleviate costs from the top of the NHL on down.

Naming Rights: Effective Branding For Dollars in the Midwest…

May 30, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

Much of the talk with regard to naming rights deals revolved around the Meadowlands this past,  as branding experts voiced opinions as to whether the addition of a Super Bowl to the new Meadowlands Stadium will enhance a potential overall naming rights deal and can entice other secondary sponsors to the just opened facility. While it is still a long term process and the Super Bowl addition does help (and probably opens the door for even more top tier events in the future), just one additional event four years hence won’t bring in a multi-million dollar price tag.  The work the Stadium is doing filling ancillary events…soccer, concerts, etc. will also have great brand value, and may even pull in a non-traditional or overseas brand into the mix, keeping in mind Allianz was close to a deal at one point and UK-based Barclay’s is already in as the title sponsor for the upcoming arena in Brooklyn for the Nets.

Remembering Our True Heros…

May 28, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

This past week ESPN.com’s Jeff Bradley had a very touching story about Colonel John McHugh, a lifelong friend united through sport who was killed recently in Afghanistan. As we head through Memorial Day weekend, it is important to remember not just those men and women in the Armed Services but those in civil service who are defending us each and every day.  Four years ago, we had the rare opportunity to take several of our MMA fighters, as well as NFL great Sean Landeta, out into the Atlantic and ride in with them over several days on the USS Wasp as part of Fleet Week.   It was amazing to see and be reminded how much sports connects these young people to home every day, and how much they appreciated being remembered and treated in a very special way.

College Baseball A Lost Branding Oppt?

April 13, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

So we reach the end of March Madness and now enter that long stretch where brands don’t access the college market enmasse, eventhough this is the time where the market may be the most wide open.  The spring for the college market is devoid of football and hoops, and is a time of year which is crying out for a way to activate with the audience as students head back home for the summer and have time on their hands as they prep for exams and have less classes.  The weather in nicer, more students are outside…so why has no one embraced the opportunity for college baseball? Some may say that the weather is a hindrance in the Northeast and that schools outside of the Sun Belt put little to no marketing and sales time behind baseball.  Games are played in afternoons and crowds and facilities are sparse.  Yet the interest in baseball overall at this time of year is at its highest, and the amount of schools that do play baseball on all levels…junior colleges included…is still very high in comparision to other spectator sports.  Could a brand find a way to create a “college opening day” and activate around that program on campuses around the country…or maybe a “college baseball opening weekend”? Maybe the program is tied to telling the stories of the student-atheletes and encompasses college softball as well.  The activation could also be less about  attendance at games and more of an experiential event on campus which keeps even casual sdports fans engaged through the baseball program.  Maybe the program can also tie to an overall opening day with Little League and softball in a community, and rally the sport itself through the college experience. Colleges put a great deal of time through to drive revenue through football in the fall and basketball through the winter, it would make sense to tie and give added values to brands with a spring activation as well.  College baseball is competitive, provides a good wrapup to a marketing plan, and is extremely affordable for brands to activate against with athletes that would welcome the exposure.  Maybe its worth taking a look at on a regional level and giving the sport its due on the collegiate level.

Twins, Angels Lead Off MLB Opening Week With Unique Promos…

April 8, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 3 Comments 

We have often talked about how minor league baseball teams always find ways to create buzzworthy, fun promotions to engage their fans.  However with the MLB season opening this week, it seems like the Majors, as many teams battle to move distressed inventory in the early season, may be giving their Minor League brethren a run for their dollars in the innovation category this year (check out Mike Benacchi’s blog on the list of promotions at the MLB level this year).  Two cases in point.

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