Churu, which sells itself as “Japan’s No. 1 cat treat,” soon might have a new venue, Dodger Stadium, for its baseball-related advertising.
Same for the world’s No. 1 and No. 8 automakers (Toyota and Honda), at least two tire companies (Yokohama and Toyo), three makers of electronic games (including the companies behind Pac-Man and Ragnarok), as well as companies that sell beds, noodles, cameras, robots, televisions, computer chips, inkjet printers and a probiotic drink (Yakult) that claims to get its fermentation from a bacteria known as Lacticaseibacillus casei Shirota.
In all, at least 22 companies, selling products under dozens of brand names, forged advertising relationships with baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani during his six years in Anaheim.
It’s too early to say what will happen specifically to those contracts, but many of those brands – and probably lots of new ones – figure to stick with Ohtani as he morphs from a Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim into a Los Angeles Dodger, starting with his introduction at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, Dec. 15. The same goes for plenty of American companies, Canadian companies, Mexican companies and any European, South American or African companies willing to push some of their soccer ad spending over to baseball.
Everybody has wanted a piece of Ohtani. And Ohtani’s business people – if not the publicly reticent, baseball-focused player himself – have proven eager to help make it happen.
When news broke this week that Ohtani was deferring some $680 million of his $700 million, 10-year contract until well into his middle age, those news reports also noted that he’ll be scraping by on the $2 million a year he’ll get as a player and the $50 million a year or so that he makes off endorsements.
That was all when Ohtani was an Angel, a team that hasn’t played in a postseason game since his arrival. With the Dodgers – a team that’s experienced playoff baseball annually for more than a decade –…
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