OT: Off To A Baseball Game (and it wasn't good)

[Ash]

Lately I've been going on a binge of Off Topic threads.
I know that this is one place where I can write them and get serious and honest response.
I feel that they have just as much a place here as B-movie talk.

Anyway, I decided to check out a Minor League baseball game with a few friends at the newly built local stadium here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Our home team is the Cedar Rapids Kernels. (go figure eh?...Iowa...corn....get it?)
While the team kicks ass and routinely stomps the hell out of the competition, the stadium on the other hand does not.



The Kernels have a baseball webcam...go HERE to view it.

Don't get me wrong, the way the stadium was built is great!
It physically looks fantastic.

The problem that plagues it, along with so many other places where events are held here in America was the onslaught and total bombardment of ads, product placement and brand names.
This wasn't just a small assortment of advertising.
This went WAY beyond normal.
So much so that it was the very first thing I noticed upon entering the stadium.

Ads for products were EVERYWHERE.
And I don't mean just your average distribution of ads and logos......you literally could not walk two feet without seeing ads for every kind of product you could imagine.
Most of the ads and brand names were of the usual big companies here in America.
Pepsi....Coke...Starbucks Coffee....loads of local business ads...I could go on & on.
I wish I could obtain pics of the inside of the stadium to show you what I mean.
The outside of the stadium has not a single ad...a sneaky move.

They even showed car ads on the megatron TV between innings!
What crossed the line for me was when I noticed the foul ball poles.
Long thin metal flaps were built onto the sides of each pole and in large black letters that ran down along each flap was painted:

B
L
I
M
P
I
E
S

S
U
B
S

AHHHHH!!!!!
Now I know what really happened to baseball and why the old fashioned theme of just going to a game to have a good time has been pretty much eradicated.

Goddam advertising!

I understand that the stadium has to pay for itself somehow and they do this by selling advertising.
But like I said, this went beyond normal advertising.
It also happened to be "Free Baseball Bat Night" there...the first 1000 people through the door got a free C.R. Kernels baseball bat.
And other than the Kernels' logo on the side of the bat, can you guess what else was there?
The McDonald's logo!
Apparently they sponsored the whole thing.
I personally would've rather gone without the free bat than to have a freakin' McDonald's logo on it.

You know, I really wouldn't have minded the intense slamming of brand names in my face if the price was right but no....everything there cost a f**kin' fortune!
Their prices made most movie theater prices look tame by comparison.
Constantly I heard people all around me murmuring, "My God!  Three dollars for a bottle of Diet Pepsi!"
Or...
"Mom, can I have $4.00 so I can get some nachos?"
As she reaches into her purse to get out the money she says, "Everything is so expensive here."
A woman right behind me said that aloud.
I turned around and looked at her and saw that she was shaking her head.
She reluctantly gave her kid a $5 bill.

Here are some more examples:
A 20 oz. bottle of soda: $3.00 !!
A plastic glass of beer: $4.50 !!
A pretzel or nachos with cheese: $4.00 !!
The lowest price I could find was for a regular hot dog and that set you back $2.50.
What you got was no "Ballpark Frank" but a small, crappy non-beef dog that you could wolf down in about a minute.
If you wanted a footlong you had to shell out a whole dollar extra.
$3.50 for a foot long and still it was not a beef dog.
It was one of those that were made of "Lips and a***oles".
(Dan Ackroyd, The Great Outdoors)

I remember what pricing and ad bombardment did to the crowd at Woodstock '99.
It p**sed them off and they tried to torch the place.

This is Capitalism run amok.
It has become WAY out of control.
The extreme advertising took away from my enjoyment of the game and instead became the focus of my anger.
I went to a baseball game to get away from things like advertising.
I apparently was a fool for believing that was possible.

Not to worry, I can always go to the Field of Dreams movie site an hour away in Dyersville, Iowa and play or watch baseball there myself without any ads.
They know baseball.
Going there can take you back to what it's really all about......the game.
FIELDOFDREAMSMOVIESITE.COM
It truly is a magical place...unlike the abominable stadium I recently visited.



Many of you probably could care less about baseball but if you're from Iowa or another Midwestern state like I am, it's kind of a big deal.
You may think of Minnesota and think of hockey.
If you think of Iowa...think of corn & baseball.

What's your take on this?



Post Edited (09-10-04 07:38)

[odinn7]

Ash, I don't do baseball but I do attend our local arena for Arena 2 football. It is pretty much as you described with the advertising and prices. The cheapest part of the Arena 2 experience is the pricing of tickets. Upper level seats (which are still great) are only $5. For me, it's worth putting up with the advertising as I understand in the case of Arena 2, that the advertising doesn't just help the arena. All along the walls of the playing field there is not one spot of empty space, it's all advertising. There are also local companies that pay to have their names announced when the home team scores or gets a first down. Example: Ground Round restaurants paid to have the announcer say on every home team first down, "That's another Ground Round first down for the Pioneers!" Do I like this? Not in the least, it's actually quite annoying. I put up with it though because I realize that the team needs this in order to survive. The way I understand it is that most of the advertising that is in the arena itself helps the arena make money. Most, if not all of the advertising that is on the playing field and done by the announcer helps the team. The concession stands and their unreal prices help the company that got the contract from the arena and nobody else. The arena contracts to the highest bidding company to do concessions and the company that wins this contract pays the arena a set amount of money and then they charge what they want. I'm not sure how it is with minor league baseball but Arena 2 is not a huge money game (the palyers only get $200 per game and most have to work real jobs and do it in hopes of being recognized and moving up) so they need something to help them with their funds. Cost of players, uniforms, bus trips and lodging for away games...it all adds up and that is where the money from advertising comes in. Ads suck, commercialism sucks but unfortunately it's something we all just have to live with.