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Marketing and Sponsorship

Cubs Fans Continue To Purchase World Series Merchandise As Holidays Approach

Cubs fans have "continued to buy" World Series championship merchandise since their team won the title last month, and the team "set a high for MLB's best hot-market sales ever" in a single month within the first 24 hours of winning the title, according to Phil Rosenthal of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. MLB Exec VP/Business Noah Garden said, "Generally we see legs on merchandise sales through November and December certainly. But this one should extend right into next year. ... This isn't going to die off very quickly." A source said that it "appeared fans spent about" $70M on World Series gear the first day after the Cubs took the title. That would "be a record not just for baseball, but across all pro sports." New Era Baseball Category Dir Tony DeSimone said that "fueled by the Cubs run to a title this year," New Era "set a mark, doing 2 1/2 more business during" the '16 MLB postseason than last year. The "continuous churn of new Cubs World Series products constantly being introduced at all price levels is both a cause and an effect of that." Rosenthal noted there are some things MLB "won't allow," but the league and its business partners are "eager to see just how much a bull market for Cubs will bear." Garden: "You're seeing a lot of Cubs product where you haven't seen it before" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 12/9).

TO THE VICTOR GO THE SPOILS: In Chicago, Rick Morrissey asked, "Why are the Cubs raising ticket prices so dramatically? Because they can." The Cubs "want your money, as much of it as they can get, just like every other sports franchise does." Winning is "simply permission to get more." However, fans "deserve better than the hit to the checkbook the Cubs are giving them now." Morrissey: "A more incremental price increase would have been a classy 'thank you' to the paying customers who had put up with all that wretchedness" in years past (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/10).

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