April 25, 2007
Revenue Sharing
A new form of league revenue sharing sprung up around Daisuke Matsuzaka:
The Rangers are among several Major League Baseball teams capitalizing on the Sox's $103 million investment in Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka by selling ballpark advertising to Japanese companies. Those firms, which include a chain of men's day spas, are trying to get their message across to fans watching broadcasts of Major League Baseball games back in Japan. The Rangers and Kansas City Royals have already sold ad space worth hundreds of thousands of dollars inside their own stadiums, though neither team has a Japanese baseball star. Several other teams have also gotten inquiries from Japanese firms about advertising when the Red Sox are playing.
"Teams like the Kansas City Royals are benefiting from the Red Sox," said Sam Kennedy , Sox vice president of sales and marketing.
The Sox, though, won't see much new revenue from Japanese sponsors at Fenway Park because most of the advertising space was sold long ago to American companies. It's also far more expensive to advertise at Fenway compared to other baseball venues.
Don't you just love global communications?
Posted by David Pinto at
10:34 AM
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"The Rangers and Kansas City Royals have already sold ad space worth hundreds of thousands of dollars inside their own stadiums, though neither team has a Japanese baseball star."
Ummm, don't the Rangers employ Akinori Otsuka?
While you're right that he is Japanese, he's certainly not a "star" like Ichiro, Matsui, and Dice-K are.
I'd think the Red Sox could employ the same technology that FOX has been using for several years, to insert "virtual" billboards into the Japanese TV feed. Then they could double-sell the slots; once for the ballpark, and once for Japan.
If the Red Sox or their cable channel don't control the Japanese TV rights, then I'm surprise that whoever does control them hasn't done this already. Would seem like a nice pot of money just waiting for someone to collect.
And if I'm the first to think of this idea... Hey, NESN, how about a job? : - )
