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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Indians have reached an agreement with Progressive Insurance for the naming rights of the 40,000-seat facility on the corner of Ontario Street and Carnegie Avenue, a source close to the Indians said Thursday. Progressive Insurance, a Cleveland-based company, is owned by millionaire/philanthropist Peter Lewis.
An announcement is expected to be made today. Terms of the deal were not released.
Peter,
Don’t worry about paying the Indians. Just go ahead and make out the checks for (at least) the first five years of the naming rights deal to Carsten Sabathia.
Thanks,
-Dan
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Though I'm guessing that the laser light show will be awesome.
I wonder if this will pave the way for Yes, King Crimson, and Rush to finally make their way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
if he'd meet them "at the prog."
Sounds like Gentle Giant Field would be a natural.
One can only hope they'd ask ex-Padre Gary Green to join the organization.
And the not-so-nice things about it are many. Watching a Premiereship "football" game is significantly less enjoyable for me seeing all the ads, even on the referee.
The team logo is the crest usually found on the left breast of the jersey.
At the same time, I have a total double standard about this when it comes to baseball unis. I can imagine the Rangers or Marlins or any number of teams looking pretty spiffy with ads on them, while I would cry into my pillow if someone sullied the Tigers' home whites, the Yankee pinstripes, or the Dodgers sharp unis.
I really couldn't care less about the stadiums, but the uniforms will annoy me severely. I just got done watching the World Juniors and the European teams had crap on their uniforms. The referees looked like Rocky Balboa with the meat-packing ad on his back.
One can only hope that the uproar over the Spider Man 2 bases will stick with them for a long time.
I'm with Dan, though: If this we keep C.C. in town, then I can live with "the Pro".
This is clearly the work of Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones.
If you are second in (AT&T;Park, Chase Field) or first in after a long-established non-corporate name (McAfee Coliseum, U.S. Cellular Field, Progressive Field), the marketing advantage is lost because no one remembers the new name and just uses the old name, so the deal is a net loser.
So if you are a stockholder in Progressive, congrats - they are giving your cash to the Indians for no real reason.
The question now is whether Cleveland have another Prog spring a la 2007....
I found this naming rights deal interesting because I thought the trend was reversing. Hicks hasn't rebranded his ballpark post Ameriquest, Casey Wasserman didn't get a deal for Nationals Park although he will get something. Interesting to see what will happen with the "branding" ( ugh ) of Wrigley & the new Yankee Stadium. I think the Mets might be the last team to cash in huge with Citi Field.
But seemingly every 50 feet or so will be sponsored by another huge NYC or internationally-based company. They believe they can add up those numbers and match an actual stadium naming rights deal, without (maybe) ticking off the traditionalists.
The next huge cash-in will be the Giants/Jets stadium in the Meadowlands opening in 2010, which will break all such records.
Well, there could be a top-secret naming rights bid made by Yankee Candle Co.
Yankee magazine has owned the rights since the early 1900's.
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