Seattle Sports Insider

Dr's R/X

Endorsements in Seattle

Ain't NY, but...

Posted by

jemanji

12/4/13

Once again: we'll all believe it when we see it. :- )

Twice again: it's Hot Stove League. What did you want to talk about, the Seahawks? ::pfft::

......

An interesting issue comes up: would you ever see a high-profile Team LeBron scenario sign with the Mariners, even if the Mariners were the only team offering a trophy contract? Or would the endorsement situation -- not the winning situation, but the endorsement situation -- preclude that?

I don't know the answer. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind. Hopefully you've got better than this :- )

My own instincts run to two basic ideas: (1) there is no city in the world like New York. (2) You can definitely do business in Seattle, my friend.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior, playing in Seattle and Cincinnati, had deals with

Nike
NINTENDO (ahem)
Wheaties
Pizza Hut
Pepsi
Dick's Sporting Goods
Upper Deck
a bunch of others

Griffey is Griffey, but ... I wouldn't mind being on the cover of a major video game. The Nike and Nintendo deals come with TV commercials, and you can launch from there.

To a fan, it might not sound like much :- ) but if you're sitting at a conference table, planning an assault on Corporate America, that Nintendo deal certainly ain't anything to sneeze at.

Others have pointed out local opportunities - Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, Qwest, etc etc. And the club scene in Seattle is pretty edgy, if that's Cano's thing. Seattle is a big-time tech town. The bidness scene is major.

Not at all difficult for Mariner reps to go with "Ya you betcha. We'll get meets with Starbucks and Qwest next week." That much is for sure.

ARod

There was probably never an athlete more interested in getting onto the cover of Time magazine.

However, when Texas offered the trophy contract, ARod found a way to rationalize playing for a loser, in a flyover state. "Just a coupla pieces and we're right there..."

I think what ARod/Texas underlines, is, Do Not Underestimate the Power of the Schmoozing. Time and again you here athletes say "This just FELT right." Read: the girls were there, the worship was there, the bling was there, the leather seats in the helicopter were there ... it was all a lot of fun in that city.

.........

ARod made sure that he could bail on Texas if they did NOT produce a winner. Presumably Cano would do the same.

LeBron

There was a lot made of New York's full-court press --- > precisely about the endorsements. I remember some story about a leather portfolio given to LeBron, showing that he could become a BILLIONAIRE in New York, based on the high profile.

He chose Miami (where?!) because (it seems) he thought it would be fun to play there. And it's not like he's NOT on TV.

Prince Fielder

Having done his penance in Milwaukee, you always got the impression that Team Boras wanted stardom for Prince. I dunno how many of you have ever been to Detroit?!

Takeway for me here would probably be, score the Trophy Contract and you'll find a way to rationalize the rest of it.

Ichiro

Ichiro, playing in Seattle, apparently had any American endorsement opportunity he wanted (and we're leaving Japan out of the equation here). According to this article, baseballs stars gain marketability based not on the World Series or location, but based on traction they gain based on "excellence over a long period of time."

Cal Ripken, Nolan Ryan, and many other mega-stars are given as illustrations of the point.

Dr's Prognosis

Without any doubt, New York endorsements can easily overwhelm the value of a player contract. (Although it's not clear why Cano doesn't already HAVE them.)

What seems odd, though, is that the Talking Heads on TV don't often refer to this factor. They refer to a team's chances of winning -- often because of their own bias; they didn't see ARod to Texas because they always round up The Usual Suspects -- and they refer to trophy contracts. But you don't see Ken Rosenthal talking about the lack of Armani opportunities in Detroit or St. Louis.

It seems to me that most athletes want trophy contracts, and they want to be fawned over, and they want a partnership with their organization (read: special treatment), and they will rationalize the rest. As ARod did.

...........

Now, if you want to say that Cano would not come here because we lose a lot, then that's another discussion. The ability to get on TV, to air-commute back-and-forth to Hollywood for screen tests, the ability to get on video-game covers? Doesn't seem to me like that's an issue compared to St. Louis. And nobody would be questioning Cano to St. Louis.

Could be wrong. But the guess here is that if Seattle is offering the ONLY trophy contract out there, then Cano is not at all unlikely to opt for it.

Or not,

Dr D

Blog:

Dr's R/X

Comments

This pretty much nails it

"(Although it's not clear why Cano doesn't already HAVE them.)".
Yes, he's been in NY for what a decade or so? That ship has sailed. Cano isn't a Griffey or Bo Jackson or Sammy Sosa. You either ooze the "it" factor, or you don't. Russell Wilson has it. I've thought it strange ever since Cano changed agents to Jay Z as some kind of endorsement bonanza. I'm sure he can make some extra coin by forcing the issue, but you can't force being an icon. It happens naturally.
However all this off the field stuff plays out would be tickled to have him smacking the ball around for my favorite team as collateral damage.

Video game covers

EA sports is just across the border in Vancouver, that's another option.

"Well Played, Mauer"?

Is that the EA sports thing? The Dustin Pedroia commericial is one of my all-time favorites :- ) Oh. Excuse Me. I was just polishing my MVP. ... "Apart from YOU?? Ummm..."

Ya… IF the NY deals have been disappointing

You'd think a re-boot would be appealing. "Ya you betcha Robinson, we'll line up some meets for you next week. We already talked to QWest and they're jazzed. Oh yeah, and we need you to be the face of our new regional TV system."
If he's feeling ripped off about the lack of props in NY, maybe there's a vacuum to step into.
Or not.

Right on, Doc.

Lots of guys, big guys, end up outside the neon lights of NYC or La La Land. Whatever feels right feels right. Seattle has the ball in their court, at least for a bit, because it seems we've made the current "Wowza" bid. But this all seems to be a 1/5 billion dollar dance. Remember "Save the Last Dance for Me?"
Well you can dance
Every dance with the guy
Who gives you the eye
Let him hold you tight
And you can smile
Every smile for the man
Who held your hand
'Neath the pale moonlight
But don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darling, save the last dance for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tXUxVWtyaU
I just can't shake the fact that the Yankees are crooning that song and Cano knows where home is.
Granderson, Kemp/Ethier (subsidized, of course) and Morales would be better than Cano and Morales, for my two cents.

We do offer

the entire NW region during the spring and summer, only Felix as competition. Felix probably wouldn't mind sharing the spotlight, face of the network, etc.... in return for more winning. The King doesn't come across as caring much about off the field stuff. Cano would be a legend in this town if he came and led us to a World Series. Lot's of good things could unfold here for Cano, but as for this next level international superstar stuff I don't see it if it hasn't already happened.
Thanks for all the good writings this week! Hope you're forced to do many more shortly.

very...very careful thought.

This situation is delicate for me for obvious reasons...
But if Cano is worthy of a trophy contract (and statistically, he is...though the issues are complex to be sure)...then why has he not gotten a huge portfolio together in NY already? Answer, IMHO, is that he is surrounded by towering stars there. A-Rod and Jeter and to a lesser extent (!) Rivera and even Pettitte had lots of endorsement deals in NYC media.
So which is better for Cano...playing in NY where he is taken as a given commodity, rather than someone coming in as a hero from abroad...or playing in Seattle, where he is the mega-splash-we've-all-been-waiting-on franchise-altering superstar?
I'll let him decide that...and my calculus will be very different from his. But there's a lot to like about Seattle. Only bitter pessimistic wannabes who have a "career" blogging the hometown team would ignore those positives and claim no free agent would ever come here even with the big moolah.

This town worshiped Griffey and, to a lesser degree, Ichiro

Gar has a street named after him just outside the park, Felix has his own Royal Court, and KGJr climbed the space needle and knocked an asteroid back into space, for cryin' out loud. If Cano came in and led the team to a world championship, dude would probably get an all-new new breed of salmon genetically engineered and named after himself.

Totally agree

Never understood the argument that you can't get an endorsement if you play for a team that's not in New York. What's that got to do with it? Media these days is global. I don't see that as a factor at all. Unless you're talking about NY regional stuff, in which case, that's small potatoes anyways. If he wants the money, and we offer more of it, he will take the deal here regardless of the endorsements.
A couple other thoughts...
When has any Seattle team landed a bigger free agent? Ever. I'm talking any team, any sport. Griffey was homegrown, Buhner, Big Unit were trades. Edgar was homegrown. Felix, as well. Switching sports - Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton were drafted by us. Ray Allen was traded from the Bucks. We drafter Russell Wilson, Okung, Sherman, etc. Steve Largent was acquired via trade, as well as Matt Hasselbeck and Percy Harvin.
The best I can come up with is Ichiro and Adrian Beltre. And I'd argue that at the time of the deal, Ichiro was vastly undervalued (Beltre less so). I can't think of a single free agent landed by a Seattle pro sports team, when that player was at his peak. I have to be missing an obvious one, right? Please help me out here.
My point is, it's easy to become a sports hero in this town. Play well, stick around, make the playoffs, and you'll get a statue. Guaranteed. That doesn't appeal to every player out there, but maybe it does to Cano.

Spencer Haywood was the biggest free agent splash in Seattle

That was a real game changer. Took a lot of guts by a Seattle franchise owner who was tired of losing, so much so that he took on the entire NBA establishment to try to turn things around. A Cano signing would be in that ballpark, having been poached from the Yankees. How often does a team (and Seattle of all places) get to outpay them to take their best player?