Finding a blank canvas on a field where pro sports are played is about as easy as finding someone with no opinion on Donald Trump’s candidacy. However, when the independent Atlantic League opens its baseball season April 21, that’s what fans will see.
Taking a page out of the decoration of NHL goalie masks, which developed into pop art over the past 40 or so years, all of the eight-team Atlantic League’s catchers will be wearing decorated equipment, including chest protectors, masks, shin guards and helmets.
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Atlantic League catchers will take a page from NHL goalies.
Photo by: SKYE DESIGN STUDIOS
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With former MLB Properties President
Rick White heading the Atlantic League as president, of course there’s a retail play. The images festooning the “tools of ignorance” will be available on a variety of licensed products. Since those logos will be on the field of play, they’ll have “authentic” cachet, which translates into retail sales.
Rawlings has Atlantic League rights, so its brand also will appear on the decorated equipment. Wilson holds those rights across Major League Baseball, so the question is how soon this latest form of artistic expression on the diamond finds its way onto MLB fields? It’s difficult to believe that many MLB backstoppers won’t want the same sort of outlet for personal expression that NHL goalies have enjoyed for decades.
Keep in mind that center field is the pre-eminent camera angle in baseball telecasts; that makes catchers a perfect billboard for displaying new licensing indicia. Similarly, the NFL has used its sidelines to this advantage for years.
Skye Design Studios, Florham Park, N.J., which helped design logos for some of the country’s largest pro and college sports properties, engineered the brand strategy and subsequent creative for the project. Applying the airbrushed acrylic-paint designs is Philadelphia-based PaintZoo studios, which also paints goalie masks and motorcycle helmets.
Acknowledging that patent protection for newly decorated catcher’s equipment may be “problematic,” White said he fully expects the concept to be adopted at higher levels of baseball, including MLB. Surely, the Atlantic League would love to grab some of those royalties, but that’s not assured.
Coming a year after the Atlantic League garnered attention by using baseballs with red, white and blue stitching, “Increasing visibility and highlighting innovation of our league is important,” said White, who got the idea last season after seeing a catcher whose red equipment came nowhere close to matching the team’s uniform. “But so is showing we can commercialize those ideas.”
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University of Colorado Health passed out pedo-meters to Rockies fans.
Photo by: PARAGON MARKETING GROUP
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> WALKING THE ROCKIES: Can a baseball sponsor “own” the base on balls?
University of Colorado Health is looking to do just that with a program launching this month, which promotes walking as a healthy regimen and ties in to the number of walks and the distance traveled by the Colorado Rockies this season.
During each game at Coors Field, a UC Health LED “takeover” will flash, and the number of walks earned and the distance traveled by the team will be updated via a branded PA announcement. Those stats also will be featured during Rockies broadcasts and on the team website.
More than 15,000 co-branded Rockies/UC Health pedometers from BDA were distributed by street teams around the stadium. The program will culminate with a community walk before a Rockies game in August or September, which will end at Coors Field. Paragon Marketing Group of Skokie, Ill., is UC Health’s sports marketing agency of record.
> COMINGS & GOINGS: Molly Mullady Arbogast is departing the Philadelphia Eagles, where she’s been vice president of corporate partnership development since 2012. Arbogast will establish a boutique sponsorship consultancy by the fall, serving both brands on the buy side and property sellers. This was her second tour of duty with the Eagles. Arbogast also has worked for Learfield Sports, the WNBA, Palace Sports & Entertainment and IMG. … Shawn Hackman joins IRG Sports & Entertainment as chief revenue officer. Hackman had been senior director of business development at Speedway Motorsports Inc.’s Kentucky Speedway and worked for new IRGSE vice chairman of the board and CEO Chris Lencheski at Front Row Marketing, as vice president of motorsports. … Scott Lange has joined eTeam Executive Search as a senior vice president. The former chief marketing officer and executive vice president of New York Road Runners said he’s specializing more broadly, in marketing and sales, than specifically in sports. Still, Lange says he will play in the sports space partially. … Former GroupM ESP chief Bryce Townsend joins ESP Properties’ side of the agency in the newly created role of head of business solutions, working directly with rights holders and with a client roster that includes the IOC, New Zealand All Blacks, Cleveland Cavaliers, London Olympic Stadium and Copa America Centenario.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
