Major Leagues Going for Minors

Major league baseball sparked controversy earlier this year with the admission that it might make room on players’ uniforms for advertising patches. The idea wasn’t a hit with purists, but baseball hopes to hit a home run with a marketing thrust designed to pull more children and teens into the game.

As a growing number of kids kick it aside for soccer and extreme sports, baseball is waking up to the same reality that earlier dawned on the NFL--leagues must actively market themselves to youthful consumers awash in opportunities to spend free time and money.

“MLB and the players both agree that kids are critical to the future of the game,” said Timothy J. Brosnan, MLB’s senior vice president of domestic and international properties. “It’s all about engaging kids as fans on a one-on-one basis. The more kids are engaged with baseball, the better. And we’re constantly looking for opportunities to reach kids where they are.”

The league’s youth initiative runs the gamut from a soon-to-be-introduced baseball Barbie Doll to programming ties with the kids-oriented Nickelodeon cable network. Last week’s marketing agreement with CBS Inc. online subsidiary SportsLine USA Inc. will lead to a much-needed renovation for baseball’s online home. And, working in concert with video game manufacturers and the players’ union, MLB is negotiating with retailers to keep baseball titles on store shelves during the hot Christmas selling season rather than dumping them when the World Series ends.

Just as important, observers say, is that baseball has rediscovered a core strength--one that got lost during the 1990s as baseball tried to copy the fast-paced marketing machine that powered the NBA’s rise.

“They’ve stopped trying to be the ‘NBA II,’ ” said Keith Bruce, director of sports marketing for Foote, Cone & Belding’s San Francisco office. “They’ve learned to be true to who they are, which is a family-oriented game with an emphasis on the old deal of dad taking the wife and kids to the ballpark. They’ve acknowledged that it’s OK to market the game to 40-year-old guys who’ve got the time and money to spend.”

That might seem a contradictory strategy--going after kids by talking to their dads. But marketers say it could pay dividends because baseball, more than football or basketball, traditionally has relied upon one generation to pass its love of the game along to the next. And, as baseball builds its fan base among kids and teens, it can demand more profitable broadcast deals and corporate sponsorships.

MLB’s youth-oriented overtures are part of an overall marketing effort that has evolved in the wake of the disastrous 1994 strike that led to a whopping 20% attendance drop during the 1995 season. They come at an opportune time.

Thanks to last season’s home run race, baseball was one of the few sports to build its fan base during 1998, according to the ESPN Chilton Sports Poll. And, as football and basketball mourn the retirement of such stars as John Elway and Michael Jordan, baseball’s rosters are filled with such exciting young players as the Boston Red Sox’s Nomar Garciaparra and the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter. And fans are watching last season’s home-run kings, St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire and Chicago Cub Sammy Sosa.

And, at a time when football and basketball seem intent upon pricing themselves out of the reach of many families, baseball remains a relative bargain.

The game also has its share of problems.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn., which tracks equipment sales, reports that baseball participation is on the wane. Baseball’s “Diamond Skills” program, which introduces kids to the game, drew just 410,000 youngsters in 1998. In contrast, the NFL’s “Pass, Punt & Kick” program drew 2 million kids.

The New York Yankees turned in a stellar season in 1998, but the World Series television ratings were dismal. Fans also continue to grumble when such high-priced nomads as Kevin Brown switch teams at the drop of an owner’s checkbook.

Despite pressure from MLB executives, it still takes about three hours to play a game, meaning baseball telecasts are slow-moving vehicles for kids raised on Internet time. And baseball stars are still outshined by their NFL and NBA counterparts.

Observers tie many of MLB’s woes to the fact that baseball was essentially rudderless during the 1990s. Earlier this year, baseball franchise owners finally agreed to drop the “acting” from Commissioner Bud Selig’s title. And it added former Toronto Blue Jays President Paul Beeston, a respected franchise executive, as chief operating officer. Observers say that the league and its players’ union recognize that fans want baseball drama on the field--not in court or on picket lines.

“My take on baseball is that it’s in the midst of a healing process,” said Bruce of Foote, Cone & Belding. “It’s not completely healed . . . but it’s in the final chapter.”

One other indication of baseball’s improved marketing skills is the parade of new sponsors that began last season when baseball added MasterCard. This year, MLB signed multiyear deals with Amtrak, Century 21, Fleet Bank, John Hancock, Toys R Us and Dexter Shoes.

Sales of MLB-licensed merchandise rose to an estimated $2.5 billion in 1998, according to Jeffrey Sacks, an editor with Phoenix-based Team Licensing Business. That’s well behind football’s estimated $3.5 billion in sales, but ahead of the NBA, which is suffering from the loss of Michael Jordan and a strike-shortened season.

MLB hopes to increase the sale of licensed apparel and accessories by opening kiosks in major mass merchandisers where goods would be clustered together rather than spread out throughout the store. Brosnan is hoping that the first kiosk could open later this year.

Baseball also has high hopes for its video games, which sell like hot cakes during the season, but sit on the bench once the Fall Classic is over. Baseball is working with its video game partners to get new games--or old product dressed up with new bells and whistles--on store shelves during the holiday season when a majority of games are sold.

And when the kids aren’t playing video games? MLB hopes kids will be buying and watching videos featuring such popular young stars as Jeter and Garciaparra in action. MLB recently took its video operations in-house, Brosnan said, to ensure that videos are “more player-focused, more appealing to a younger demographic. We want to feature players who are very relevant to kids.”

The flurry of marketing activity is being noticed by sports marketers. “There’s no question that MLB now has an enlightened sense of the importance of marketing the game and its players on a league level,” said Dean Bonham, founder of Bonham Group, a Denver-based sports marketing company. “They’re not 100% yet, but they’re getting there.”

The challenge facing baseball, Bruce said, is its continuing ability to translate fan interest into better broadcast deals and lucrative corporate sponsorships.

“Back in the mid-1990s, any corporate partner that signed on bought a stock that was trading at $3,” Bruce said. “Well, it’s now trading at $58 and it’s got the potential to go to $90 or $100. When you look at the year 2000 and beyond, baseball really starts to look good again as a corporate sponsorship vehicle.”

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Sports Report

Sports that are recreational in nature--or that help improve overall fitness--are gaining in popularity among Americans. Besides basketball, traditional team sports making the top 25 are slow-pitch softball (21) and soccer (24). The number of Americans playing baseball at least once a year declined by 12% between 1987 and 1998.

10 Most Popular Sports* (In millions of participants)

Recreational swimming: 94.4

Recreational walking: 80.9

Recreational bicycling: 54.6

Bowling: 50.6

Freshwater fishing: 45.8

Tent camping: 42.6

Basketball: 42.4

Free weights: 41.3

Billiards: 39.7

Day hiking: 38.6

*U.S. population, age 6 or older, who participated in activity at least once in 1998.

Source: Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn.