Sports fans love throwing stuff. Football fans throw snowballs, hockey fans throw squid, basketball fans throw cups of ice, and, apparently, baseball fans throw promotional stadium cushions! Picture above: After snapping an 8-game losing streak, nature takes its course as overjoyed Cardinals fans grab the closest thing they can find and hurl it onto the field in wild ecstatic abandon.

Posted: November 18th, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
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After talking about the place of promotional towels in professional sports, I was lucky enough to stumble on this video which gives a very brief history of the most famous example of the rally towel: The Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel. The footage of entire stadiums waving their giveaways sure is awe-inspiring. I’m a big proponent of teams providing their fans with ways to get involved and show their support during the game, and the Steelers certainly know what they’re doing in this regard! Check out the video here:

Posted: November 17th, 2008 under Football, Souvenirs, stadium giveaways.
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Giving away stadium promotions does more than give fans an extra reason to show up at the ballpark. Fun stadium giveaways also engage fans in a hands-on manner and let them get involved in the outcome of the game! Back in April, Mets fans at Shea Stadium arrived to receive free promotional towels, a.k.a. “Rally Towels”, that they could swing around to show support for their team. There’s no doubt that thousands of swinging towels certainly has the ability to distract members of the visiting team!

The  towels ended up coming in handy during this extra innings game played against the Phillies almost 7 months ago. The Mets did in fact end up rallying to defeat their division rival in 12 innings with a score of 4-3. Fans got to take home a fun souvenir that provides them with a way to instantly remember the fun they had at the ballpark, and increases the odds of them returning to see the Mets win more exciting games in the future.

Posted: November 13th, 2008 under Baseball, Souvenirs, stadium giveaways.
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There’s nothin’ like a good old Texas bar-bee-cue, just ask the Houston Astros’ fans.  Last July, Astros management gave away promotional BBQ tool sets to the first 10,000 fans.  That’s a whole lot of grilling tools!  Seems like they chose a great time for the promotion too, given that Independence Day was just two days later.  Heck, some fans may have even high-tailed it right back to their vans to get the grilling started right there in the parking lot.  But hopefully they stuck around to see the ‘Stros swing their bats.

Posted: November 7th, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
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With 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, there are bound to be some Twins fans who like to fish. And, hopefully, those fans don’t like to get drunk at baseball games and gouge each other’s eyes out.  That’s how Twins management hedged their bets in May of 2008, when they gave away fishing hooks with litte Joe Mauer (he’s the catcher, get it!) jerseys painted on.

Posted: November 7th, 2008 under General.
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This adorable advertising giveaway was given to the first 18,000 fans at Yankee Stadium on September 17, courtesy of MetLife. It’s a promotional plush animal version of Snoopy (also MetLife’s mascot) wearing a mini Yankee jersey. These types of family-friendly giveaways are the perfect schwag to use to draw children and families out to the ballpark.

Posted: November 6th, 2008 under Baseball, Basketball, MLB All Star Game, stadium giveaways.
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