I know it’s kind of silly, but as a fan of the only baseball team in Canada, it’s easy to feel slighted whenever you look at nationally televised games and American coverage of MLB in general. Not that the team is ignored, but when Jose Bautista comes in fifth place in AL MVP voting and Toronto still gets referred to as a small market team by the MLB Network, it can get frustrating at times.
However, it also makes it a little more special when a player from the Toronto Blue Jays is featured on a large scale like starting pitcher Ricky Romero was in this just released Nike commercial:
Good commercial. I bet if Romero pitched for any team other then the Jays, they would have at least mentioned the team he played for.
Haha. Didn’t even notice that.
For all intents and purposes, the Jays are a small market team. Rogers has only had an above-average payroll once or twice in their 10 year ownership.
Cool commercial, though.
Just because Toronto has a large population, doesn’t make it a big market. I’ll bet that Thunder Bay is a bigger market for parkas than LA is, but the populations are much different. They had a good run for a few years, but overall they’re a mid-market that doesn’t have much of an impact outside of itself. They’re only a “big-market” when they’re winning. That said, this is the time for them to tap into the potential market they have here, what with the Leafs and Raps being pretty much unwatcheable and the city starved for a winner (I love the Argos and enjoy the Rock, but they don’t count).
I have yet to find a reason why Ricky Romero isn’t completely awesome.
By that rationale, every market is big when it’s winning. Look at Yankees attendance figures when they were terrible.
Toronto is not a small market team. It may have a mid-market structure (re: Fulmer’s point), but the market itself is large considering the population of Toronto and the ties to an entire nation, plus having the richest owners in all of baseball.
I agree with Dustin.
“Just because Toronto has a large population, doesn’t make it a big market”
At a basic level, that’s not true. Things like population and economy is what makes a city a big, small or medium market.
Would you say Green Bay or San Antonio are ‘big markets’ because they have successful NFL and NBA teams? No, they’re elite, successful teams in small markets.
You also wouldn’t say Phoenix or Atlanta are small markets, just because they have woeful support for their NHL teams. They’re both big.
Toronto has had average to bad attendance the last decade because they haven’t made the playoffs in 18 years. Not because it’s a small market.
I think we might be splitting hairs. Phoenix and Atlanta are small hockey markets, no doubt about it. That was my point by comparing the “market” for parkas in LA and Thunder Bay. LA is a bigger “market”, but Thunder Bay is a bigger parka market (I’d assume, unless there’s a big high-end parka trend in LA right now). Toronto, and Canada, if you want to include the whole country, is not a big baseball market. It can be big when the Jays are successful, but as Fullmer said, for all intents and purposes it isn’t a big baseball market at the moment. Is there untapped potential? Probably, but people here don’t eat baseball for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (thanks A.J.), and a winning team will only be a temporary bump in the size of the baseball market.
They didn’t mention the team because it is a Nike commercial, not an MLB properties commercial. They don’t mention the Yankees in any of Jeter’s Gatorade spots because they can’t afford it.
Oh and Dustin, yes, it’s true that you could say every market is big when it’s winning, and the Yanks attendance numbers weren’t exactly stellar in the late 80s and early 90s. But I would equate an increase in “market size” due to winning (again, we’re talking market for a specific product, not the entire population) as a fad, like those balloon pants you have in your closet that you just can’t get rid of from the MC Hammer days (maybe not that extreme, but you get the picture). There was a huge market for those at the time, but it wasn’t sustainable on its own. Toronto is a solid baseball market,, but it’s not a big baseball market.
That’s awesome.
@Brendan & Fullmer: You’re not really talking about “market.” You’re talking about popularity or other conditions. Market doesn’t refer to popularity or how much money is budgeted toward salary.
A “market” usually refers to the number of consumers that any product can potentially attract. Sure, the Jays may not be Canada’s darlings right now, but they potentially could be, if they are marketed as such. I’m not going to pretend that I have some sort of marketing strategy in my mind, I’m just sayin’. And I don’t see how Toronto can’t be thought of a s a large market as one of the largest, most populated, and most cultural cities in North America. So, it’s not even an argument in my opinion.
Love this commercial, BTW.
Toronto achieved 4 million plus in attendance when the Skydome first opened and the Blue Jays were winning World Series… I believe they actually hold the record for most attendance in a four year span ever. If the club is winning, people show up… we’re not like Tampa Bay here.
Funny thing about kids that grow up in the American inner city (like East LA) is that they have nothing other than time on their hands to play. For them, play is a means to escape institutional poverty. Unfortunately, only a microscopic few actually “make it out.” Make no mistake: Nike and other sports corporations are in the business of sustaining an American dream that that turns out to be a lie (i.e., it takes much more than individual work ethic to “make it”). TV ads like these are criminal for the way in which they capitalize on the structural oppression of racial minorities. Yeah, “fuck off” to you, too, in advance.
@PJ. In other news, salt is salty.
Also, Google is a fantastic online search engine.
Drew and Dustin – while I’m usually on board with the flippant response to an obvious comment (“Roy Halladay is good? Whodda thunk?!”), some things are worth stating, even if they seem clear. Especially if it seems like everyone else is hanging streamers in Ricky’s and Nike’s honour.