Talkin’ Baseball
Comerica really stepped up to the plate when the home team decided to build a new baseball park. The Detroit-based banking company went deep into its pockets, pitching in $66 million over 30 years for the naming rights to Comerica Park, the new “old” playground for the Detroit Tigers that opened on April 11.
While some baseball purists bemoaned the move from cozy Tiger Stadium, which saw its first pitch thrown in 1923, Comerica is Major League Baseball’s latest “retro” park, constructed to provide an old-fashioned atmosphere while still offering modern amenities (read: skyboxes and other revenue-generating features).
Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch (who is also the proprietor of Little Caesar’s pizza) has loaded the joint with family-friendly attractions such as a baseball museum, an old-fashioned carousel, a Ferris wheel, and liquid fireworks that spurt when the home team does good.
The deal encompasses a dugout full of promotional considerations and opportunities that go well beyond the infinite number of times the name Comerica will be mentioned. “We get one luxury suite and tickets to all away games,” says Wayne Mielke, vp-corporate communications for Comerica. “Outside the suite, we get additional tickets to games, plus for one game a year we get 2,500 tickets to give to employees. Comerica radio and TV ads are played during games, and the company name is on the park’s stationery.”
Comerica will create a number of fan promotions to boost its retail banking and investment businesses. Among its plans are distribution of a fifth collector’s pin to complement four the company gave away last year, the selection by customers of an honorary bat boy and bat girl, and a Fans of the Game program in which a randomly selected foursome in the upper decks will be ushered down to seats that would make Bob Uecker jealous. Within the community, Comerica will sponsor a new float in the Motor City’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
There’s one more spin-off that Mielke says the company didn’t even think about. “There are 40 signs with our name on them on the freeway coming into the park.”
With so much name recognition, all Comerica needs now is for the Tigers to win.
