ADWEEK's Michael McCarthy noted with more women attending MLB games than ever, teams are "going out of their way to attract this audience." The Twins are "advertising 'Wine, Women & Baseball,' and the Marlins are marketing 'Wine Down Wednesday Ladies Night.'" Braves Exec VP/Sales & Marketing Derek Schiller said that the club believes it is "smarter to market to subgroups of fans rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach." But Momentum Worldwide Senior VP and Dir of Sports & Entertainment Mike Sundet said that clubs "better make sure they don't patronize women." McCarthy noted that the Astros "were torched on social media last season after they advertised an event where ladies could 'learn about baseball'" (
ADWEEK.com, 4/5).
NO WAY, JOSE? A's co-Owner Lew Wolff sat down with KPIX-CBS' Phil Matier to discuss the team's ballpark issues and said, "Every article I read says I can’t wait to move to San Jose. That’s not true. What I can’t wait to do is to have a really top-notch venue." Wolff said the move has a "lot of complications to it, with territorial rights and so forth," and is "not worth a nasty battle." When asked if was open to a deal to remain in Oakland, Wolff said, "We’re open for a deal to get us a new venue, whether we build it here or there or on Mars" (KPIX-CBS, 4/6).
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND: An L.A. TIMES editorial stated the Dodgers "sold a league-leading 3.8 million tickets last year and 3 million this season, so maybe it can afford to ignore" the SportsNet LA impasse. But the partial blackout "has led to far fewer people watching the team's games on TV, a drop that could weaken the Dodgers' grip on the region's sports fans." The longer the blackout continues, the "more tenuous that grip becomes" (L.A. TIMES, 4/7).
UP ON THE ROOF: ESPN's Keith Olbermann yesterday called Marlins President David Samson and "two unidentified colleagues" in the Marlins front office his worst persons in sports for the team's Opening Day rain delay despite Marlins Park having a retractable roof. Olbermann noted Samson "relies on a weather app on the phone" to determine when to close the roof. Olbermann: "A 16-minute rain delay in a stadium with a roof sold to the public on the pretext of ending rain delays, $515 million and that giant kid’s toy in left-centerfield, and you guys won't invest in a weatherman to work part-time just to phone in every day so you don't have rain delays in an indoor stadium?" (“Olbermann,” ESPN2, 4/7). Meanwhile, FS Florida analyst Tommy Hutton prior to yesterday's game said, "It was open during batting practice, and believe it or not it started to rain again, so they just closed it." FS1’s Mike Hill said while laughing, “Keep it closed for the sake of rain” (“America’s Pregame,” FS1, 4/7).
