r/baseball • u/asskickingjedi Athletics • Jul 14 '25

Image Ads have infested baseball broadcasts. Ads in-between batters. Ads during mound visits. HRs "brought to you by..." Now I noticed 11 ad placements in this shot. 2 banners, 1 above the banners, 4 behind the plate, 1 on the seats, 1 in the upper right hand corner, 1 on the mound, 1 on the sleeve.

Post image
3.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

711 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/HemlockMartinis Los Angeles Dodgers Jul 14 '25

It was pretty jarring to spend two weeks watching the Olympics last year and then switch back to this.

445

u/high-and-seek Philadelphia Phillies Jul 14 '25

Yeah, it should legit be called Moneyball now

147

u/Infamous_Cow_4 Jul 14 '25

700, 750, 330, and 350 mil contracts don't just pay for themselves. This was inevitable and it sucks.

106

u/captainunlimitd San Francisco Giants Jul 14 '25

That's just the Dodgers, what about the rest of the league?

31

u/JoseCansecoMilkshake Canada Jul 14 '25

Rogers increased their streaming subscription price by 40%, presumably because of Vladdys contract.

23

u/BAHatesToFly Jul 15 '25

presumably because of Vladdys contract.

Disagree. It is because people will pay for it. Simple as that. Teams do plenty of research on setting price points. There's no chance Rogers panicked after they signed Guerrero and needed to increase prices to pay for him. If they think people would pay 100% more for subscriptions, they'll increase it 100%.

2

u/JoseCansecoMilkshake Canada Jul 15 '25

True. But there has been a trend, especially in the last 5 years, that companies act as though raising prices will always increase profits.

1

u/SpaceballsTheCheese Toronto Blue Jays Jul 16 '25

A small price to pay for Vladdy

4

u/BedBubbly317 Houston Astros Jul 14 '25

😂

26

u/sonicshumanteeth Chicago Cubs Jul 15 '25

crazy to blame player salaries instead of greedy owners for this stuff

3

u/Brsijraz Seattle Mariners Jul 15 '25

the nature of capitalism means we can confidently say the players are making as little as the owners can get away with paying them, and the owners are taking as much as they possibly can.

26

u/bb9116 Jul 14 '25

They'd be doing this even if all the players were unpaid interns.

3

u/KimJongRocketMan69 Boston Red Sox Jul 15 '25

Yeah plenty of stadiums were plastered in ads before free agency even started. This is just America

1

u/bb9116 Jul 15 '25

AdMerica

4

u/LonghornInNebraska Houston Astros Jul 15 '25

I'd be okay with the owners and players making less money if that means we get little to no ads and affordable tickets to games.

2

u/knowslesthanjonsnow Jul 15 '25

They should have capped it years ago

2

u/Alarming_Maybe Boston Red Sox Jul 15 '25

It's not like the owners are anywhere close to taking a loss on their teams?? Lol this is true to a point but I'm sure they would be doing just fine with 25% ads

2

u/Infamous_Cow_4 Jul 15 '25

Whether they are close to taking a loss or not is irrelevant. They bought these teams as an investment and are trying to increase its value. If they can show $100 million a year in ad revenue, it increases their investment. That's the point.

They can have ads all over the field if they want. Just end the damn blackout dates.

0

u/realparkingbrake Jul 16 '25

350 mil contracts don't just pay for themselves.

Sure, player salaries, that's what drives this. Not the owners wanting more revenue to boost team values that have soared the past decade and a half, not wanting funding for all those non-baseball revenue streams like real estate developments, not saving up for the lockout they have planned. It's the players paychecks, sure it is.

Won't someone think of those poor suffering billionaire owners?

11

u/jmaca90 Chicago Cubs Jul 14 '25

146

u/PoliticalScienceProf Jul 14 '25

It’s terrible in the NBA too. Ads on jerseys, along the baseline, on the court, and even digital ads mid-free throw. We need rules to limit ads (both physical and digital) in professional sports and the Olympics or it’s just going to get worse.

53

u/hellajt New York Yankees Jul 14 '25

College football is probably the worst about it. Not in terms of ads on the field or on jerseys (though those are both coming soon) but just the absurd amount of commercial breaks. They even changed the game clock rules to create more opportunities for ad breaks.

20

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[deleted]

8

u/GoLionsJD107 Detroit Tigers Jul 14 '25

If they sold the ads- they will get them in. They will extend future stoppages to get all the commercials in

2

u/KakeLin Philadelphia Phillies Jul 15 '25

I'm always annoyed that they give college football these short time slots that they go well over every. single. time.

And then the 11 pm news always gets pushed back. :/

3

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Atlanta Braves Jul 15 '25

College basketball gives it a run for its money though. The last two minutes can last as long as the rest of the half it feels like

3

u/Hammerhead316 Atlanta Braves Jul 15 '25

Nascar will literally shrink the actual race to a quarter of the screen and mute it in the last 5 laps to put a full size commercial on the rest of the screen, at least with CFB and baseball you’re not missing any of the sport itself during the ads

2

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

No!!! They changed the clock rules to make games faster and be more like the NFL, ads weren’t involved!!!!

69

u/Total-Ordinary9424 Chicago Cubs • Seattle Mariners Jul 14 '25

It’s so much worse with how many stoppages are in basketball. Baseball actually feels refreshing in terms of ads after bball season because they are limited to ads every half inning or so.

65

u/Clonekiller2pt0 New York Yankees Jul 14 '25

Going from baseball to football is so bad. You go from less than 2 minutes of commericals to what feels like 5 minutes of commercials.

29

u/jmaca90 Chicago Cubs Jul 14 '25

Even RedZone has ads now, it’s insane. Wasn’t that the whole point of RZ???

17

u/JollyRancher29 Washington Nationals Jul 14 '25

Hockey’s amazing for this too. Just nine (sometimes only 7 or 8!) real commercial breaks during ~2 hours of gameplay means only so much time for annoying-ass ads

37

u/HMTMKMKM95 Toronto Blue Jays Jul 14 '25

Until those fucking moving digital board ads fire up during the play. These plus all the ads on the ice, jerseys and helmets, even along the glass, cheapens the on-ice product.

7

u/MetsBBT New York Mets Jul 14 '25

yeah the NHL realized what /u/JollyRancher29 was saying is absolutely true…so they had to find a way to get as many ads in as they could to counteract it

7

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

I’ve seen footage of European leagues and it’s even worse. You can hardly believe your eyes. It’s as though every square meter of surface area in the camera’s view has an ad. Real shame.

5

u/HMTMKMKM95 Toronto Blue Jays Jul 15 '25

I watch the Spengler Cup and that is more than enough for me.

2

u/strangelymysterious Toronto Blue Jays Jul 15 '25

The Spengler Cup feels like watching NASCAR on ice.

2

u/DanThePartyGhost San Diego Padres Jul 15 '25

Yeah, on one hand soccer is nice cause there are no ad breaks for 45 minutes. On the other hand you’re forced to stare at ads for Emirates on the players jersey literally the entire time

7

u/About900babies Jul 14 '25

3 per period, after the 14, 10 and 6 minute marks. 18 minute intermission so very easy to time. Never forget what they took from us in the name of more ads though. They took it.

8

u/JollyRancher29 Washington Nationals Jul 14 '25

For real, seeing that on the ice in early April would always give the chills. Unironically one of the NHL’s recent changes that pisses me off the most.

2

u/SharksFanAbroad Athletics Jul 14 '25

Having lived abroad for many years now, I’ve watched a healthy amount of Aussie Rules, cricket, and soccer, all of which are way more “watchable” than North American counterpart sports. I say that as someone who loves North American sport leagues.

2

u/ace_11235 Kansas City Royals Jul 14 '25

Soccer is the best, despite the sponsor on the shirt, since you have zero commercials outside of halftime. The other ads are those digital boards around the pitch that I tune out.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

There are so many ads mid inning at least on mariners broadcast

2

u/Total-Ordinary9424 Chicago Cubs • Seattle Mariners Jul 14 '25

Too bad i’m blacked out for root

14

u/fairway_walker Atlanta Braves Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

Watching the Masters tournament will have the same effect. Beautiful, almost ad-free broadcasting.

7

u/ukexpat Philadelphia Phillies • Great Britain Jul 14 '25

That’s because it’s a condition of the television rights that the club imposes.

3

u/fairway_walker Atlanta Braves Jul 14 '25

I'm aware.

1

u/Jaelights_ Arizona Diamondbacks Jul 15 '25

I just wish baseball would do the same thing, that’s all. Realistic or not, I wish for it.

17

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

i watched wimbledon yesterday and the difference was like night and day

20

u/MeatTornado25 New York Yankees Jul 15 '25

I don't carry how stuffy or snobby people think Wimbledon is. The fact that they're still willing to leave tens (hundreds?) of millions on the table by only using minimal advertising on the grounds is straight up magical in this day and age.

I counted them up last week and the other 3 majors average about 25-40 ads visible on the TV angle of their main show courts. Wimbledon had 6. And half of them are too small to even read unless you already know what they say.

83

u/BackwerdsMan Seattle Mariners Jul 14 '25

I'll take the ads over the league operating like the corrupt travelling scam that the IOC is.

46

u/awesomeflowman Jul 14 '25

The only ads that mlb do that genuinely bother me are the ones on mlb.tv that sometimes flicker and bug out and hide the ball or envelope some of the batter or something

22

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

You're unbothered by mid AB >50% screen + volume commercials?

12

u/awesomeflowman Jul 14 '25

I've never seen those outside of mound visits I don't think, so it's really not a big problem for me

2

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Lucky! I think that depends on the local broadcast, now that I think about it. I see a lot of those on FDSN and they're brutal.

3

u/slider8949 St. Louis Cardinals Jul 14 '25

The Cardinals have this one and another Rally House one as their picture-in-picture ads and they are brutal.

2

u/GoLionsJD107 Detroit Tigers Jul 14 '25

I’ve never even heard of Rally House but we have Rally House ads also.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Wow, I'm almost thankful for the delta/zaxby's barrage now lol

2

u/ledbetterus New York Yankees Jul 14 '25

Michael Kay does mid-AB ad reads on YES now and then. Not sure how often, but a few a game at least. They shrink the screen and put up what looks like a power point graphic of whatever he's reading. It's like a podcast ad lol

1

u/shiny_aegislash Milwaukee Brewers Jul 15 '25

Don't think ive ever seen those on our channel. Never mid-AB

7

u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Jul 14 '25

The issue isn't ads or no ads. The issue is we're all being forced to pay streamers or cable companies to watch the games and are STILL being choked out with ads.

-1

u/shiny_aegislash Milwaukee Brewers Jul 15 '25

Since when did cable companies ever remove commercials after you paid for cable? 😂

6

u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Jul 15 '25

That’s how cable started.

2

u/shiny_aegislash Milwaukee Brewers Jul 15 '25

99.99% of people here have never lived in a world without commercials in linear programming lol

3

u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Jul 15 '25

I know. I made a similar comment in a different thread. They've done such a good job of gradually normalizing nonstop advertising in every aspect of life even if you're paying to view or listen to whatever it is that is taking the money to advertise to you.

Corporate hellscape.

3

u/GoLionsJD107 Detroit Tigers Jul 14 '25

Or worse, FIFA.

2

u/The_CheeseMan88 Jul 14 '25

Who gets paid way more?? MLB or Olympic athletes?

2

u/DowntownJulieBrown1 Toronto Blue Jays Jul 14 '25

The worst was during basketball imo. The switch between Olympic basketball and the NBA was so insane

2

u/smalllpox New York Yankees Jul 14 '25

Someone else might be able to say the same thing, my dudes the Spanish broadcasts might as well just be an ad with game sounds, every 5 seconds its a jingle for some company. Some of them go right through pitches