As a team, the New York Mets have hit fewer than 80 home runs on the season, with the team’s only player in double digit territory, Gary Sheffield on the DL. Many have blamed it on the team’s injury-riddled season, but a main reason for the Mets’ lack of power has been the spacious Citi Field. Similar to the old Shea Stadium, Citi Field’s large outfield makes it a pitcher friendly park, but the varying heights of its outfield fences, which are as high as 16 feet in left field and 18 feet in right field, make it extremely difficult to hit the long ball.

Despite the homer-averse dimensions of Citi Field, fans have lauded its interior design, amenities, and facilities. Sponsored by the Caesars, the Mets will be holding Citi Field Replica Day to and giving away replicas of their new stadium to the first 25,000 fans in attendance. Promotional stadium cushions might be a better giveaway to make Mets fans a little more comfortable during the potential blowout against the Phillies. Nonetheless, it’s still a nice way to remember Citi Field’s inaugural season.

Posted: August 24th, 2009 under Baseball, General, stadium giveaways.
Comments: 1

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.
Comments: 1

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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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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Even though I was rooting for the Tampa Bay (gotta support the underdog!), I figured the Philadelphia Phillies were deserved of my humble team schwag blogpost after winning the World Series last night. Cole Hamels, who actually didn’t pitch last night at all, but pitched the first 5.5 innings of the crazy suspended game two days prior, won the World Series MVP. He was stellar throughout the playoffs, winning 4 games, and was poised to win a record fifth before the Devil Rays tied the score in the top of the seventh.

I digress. Hamels got the job done every time he hit the mound, and hopefully some of the faithful Phillies fans busted out their Cole Hamels promotional jerseys from the July 25th giveaway at Citizens Bank Park. Life is good right now for baseball fans in our nation’s former capital.

Posted: October 30th, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
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For those Minor League baseball teams that can’t offer to send fans away in used cars (see Reading Phillies post below), it turns out they can still offer a different set of wheels. The Lancaster JetHawks gave away skateboards to their first 500 kids at a game this past season! And for the parents of those lucky children, they gave a year of free medical coverage for skateboard related accidents! Ok, fine, that part’s not true.

If you want to give away promotional items, but maybe would rather not risk the lawsuits that might follow from turning them loose on skateboards, frisbees provide timeless fun for everyone. They advertise for you as they fly, and they don’t require helmets or knee pads for use!

Posted: October 29th, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
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Sometimes you go to a baseball game for a free bobblehead. Sometimes you even get a free souvenir in the form of a foul ball. And sometimes, yes sometimes, you get a free used car.

Minor League baseball’s Reading Phillies began a promotion dubbed Pimp My Clunker last May to give away beat up but serviceable cars to lucky fans. The Phillies’ director of communication described the vehicles as having “passed inspection, but just barely. Four tires and duct tape come standard on most cars.” I once had a car that fit that description stolen from a baseball parking lot, so I think I should be first in line!

If you want to watch some minor league baseball and potentially win a junkyard scraper, check out the Reading Phillies website. Or, if you think promotional car giveaway sounds like a good idea, but you might want to do it on a smaller and less expensive scale, check these guys out.

Posted: October 22nd, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
Comments: none

New York Yankees fans could use this timely stadium giveaway, handed out on August 30, 2008, to count down the days until their beloved team left its
longtime stadium. Of course, it might not be suitable to calculate their ridiculous payroll unless they add a few more spaces for extra digits on the display.

It does seem a bit strange to give away a calculator at a baseball game. I mean, hats, t-shirts, beer mugs, boom sticks, etc. all seem a lot more like reasonable promotional items. Maybe the calculator symbolizes the fact that a large chunk of NYC’s economy revolves around finance and number crunching.

So, maybe you don’t own a baseball team. But maybe you work for some sort of company. Really, any company. If baseball teams can give away promotional calculators, surely almost every other organization would benefit as much (I would assume more) from such a giveaway. Slap your logo on the top, and propagate it effortlessly. After all, calculators make their way to desktops, home offices, and schools. And, occasionally, baseball stadiums.

Posted: October 3rd, 2008 under Baseball, stadium giveaways.
Comments: none