[Alerts] Nader & League of Fans to Selig: No Ads on Baseball Uniforms

[Shawn McCarthy]

Ralph Nader and League of Fans Urge Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig Not 
to Put Ads on Baseball Uniforms

In response to Major League Baseball's placement of advertising on 
baseball uniforms for this season's opening series and to the 
possibility that advertising on uniforms will become permanent, Ralph 
Nader and the sports reform project League of Fans sent the following 
letter to Commissioner Selig.
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May 4, 2004

Allan H. "Bud" Selig
Commissioner
Major League Baseball
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167

Dear Mr. Selig:

The great lengths of selfishness with which you are willing to go to 
desecrate baseball and alienate fans of the game should no longer 
surprise us. Still, your placement of advertisements on the New York 
Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniforms for Major League Baseball’s 
opener on March 30 in Tokyo ambushed fans across the country and left 
them shaking their heads at this obscene embarrassment.

We urge that you immediately put this issue to rest once and for all and 
eliminate any current or future possibility that Major League Baseball 
will accept advertisements on uniforms.

You are suffocating Baseball’s fan base. It’s not enough for fans who 
want to enjoy a game to be forced to watch this pitch sponsored by that 
company or that home run sponsored by this corporation. In addition, 
they go to a stadium paid for by the fans and taxpayers, yet almost 
every available space is filled with ads and named after some 
multinational corporation with no ties to the community.

Over the last several years, fans have been made to watch “virtual 
advertising” infiltrate television broadcasts, and T.V. commentators 
using the broadcast booth to hawk cell phones during the playoffs and 
World Series. This over-commercialization is sapping the fun out of 
being a fan of Major League Baseball.

Now, you have sunk to a greedy new low. Bending Baseball to the demands 
of advertisers and accepting more than $10 million (according to 
Advertising Age) for a corporation to plaster ads on the uniforms for 
the two-game series in Tokyo. It’s supposedly a one-time deal, but 
conventional wisdom says otherwise -- that permanent advertising on 
uniforms isn’t a question of “if,” but “when.”

MLB executive vice president for business Tim Brosnan, told reporters in 
Japan “Are there any definitive plans to put logos on uniforms? No. I 
don’t see that happening. But on the other side of the coin, never say 
never.”

“We’re mindful of the fans, but I don’t think [advertising on uniforms] 
is unreasonable,” Brosnan later told the New York Post. “We’re always 
looking for new ways to advance our business.”

That must sound reassuring to fans. The public tolerates a certain 
amount of commercialism, but why do you insist on trying the patience of 
loyal baseball fans across the country? We already have NASCAR, with 
drivers doubling as walking commercial billboards. Is that really what 
you want for the national pastime?

Commissioner Selig, no one is trying to get in the way of your ability 
to make money, but you need to look beyond the immediate bottom line to 
make Major League Baseball sustainable. As primary caretaker, this means 
your job is to respect cities and fans, ensure the integrity of the 
game, and eliminate self-interested and destructive tendencies. 
Advertising on uniforms runs counter to each of these critical principles.

If you allow such an explicit interference of baseball with another 
greedy vehicle for corporate marketing -- using player uniforms as 
product placement surfaces -- apathy is not what you should expect from 
fans and sportswriters. There will be considerable resentment, and fans 
will drift away. A matter of taste can sour more quickly than you think.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 19312
Washington, DC 20036

Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036

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Take Action!

- Contact Bud Selig and urge him not to put ads on baseball uniforms.

Allan H. “Bud” Selig
Commissioner
Major League Baseball
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
tel (212) 931-7800
fax (212) 949-8636

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League of Fans is a sports reform project working to improve sports by 
increasing awareness of the sports industry's relationship to society, 
exposing irresponsible business practices, ensuring accountability to 
fans, and encouraging the industry to contribute to societal well-being.

www.leagueoffans.org