Like uneasy roommates, the Orioles and Washington Nationals share a single, population-rich advertising territory extending from Pennsylvania into North Carolina.
Unlike the NFL — which strictly assigns parts of the Baltimore-Washington area to both the Ravens or Washington Commanders to guard every staff’s advertising efforts — Major League Baseball doesn’t delineate by which areas the Orioles or Nationals can promote themselves.
That means the golf equipment should make delicate calculations about how and the place to market themselves of their huge territory — it’s bigger than some European international locations — with out antagonizing one another. The golf equipment, who meet in a two-game sequence starting Tuesday in Washington, already are entangled in a decadelong dispute over how a lot the Nationals ought to obtain in rights charges from the Orioles-controlled Mid-Atlantic Sports Network that exhibits each groups’ video games.
The franchises are outwardly cordial — it helps that they’re in numerous leagues — and each groups’ entrance places of work seem motivated to maintain it that approach, whilst they search alternatives to broaden their fan bases.
“I think a thoughtfully done outreach program into the Washington, D.C., area and suburbs is dramatically different than a guerrilla marketing technique. We’re professional, they’re professional,” mentioned Greg Bader, the Orioles’ senior vp for administration and expertise.
The Orioles try to capitalize on the thrill surrounding this season’s staff by growing internet marketing within the Washington area and elsewhere within the six-state territory, in keeping with staff executives.
While the staff’s video games have lengthy been broadcast in Washington’s tv and radio markets, this season marks the debut of “Orioles Preview,” a weekly present on WSBN-AM (630 AM), a sports activities station within the nation’s capital that’s an Orioles radio affiliate.
“There were at least a couple generations where the Orioles were the home team here,” mentioned Andy Pollin, the present’s host. “Those generations are fathers and grandfathers, and I think they feel a connection to the Orioles.”
Washington was completely Orioles territory earlier than the Nationals — the previous Montreal Expos — arrived for the 2005 season.
The Nationals, who received the 2019 World Series, are rebuilding after buying and selling away stars Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Juan Soto and aren’t anticipated to complete close to .500.
The Orioles are a scorching advertising commodity, having grown in reputation previously yr and constructed a core of bankable younger stars, most notably 2019 No. 1 total draft decide and 2022 American League Rookie of the Year runner-up Adley Rutschman.
“When you have a product on the field that’s successful and has a lot of intriguing players, you can get more eyeballs, you can get more bodies in the seats,” Bader mentioned. “The Nationals have the exact same ability to market themselves from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina. And then it becomes what the teams philosophically believe is possible and where their best dollars are spent.”
That’s the place issues can get delicate.
In 2008, the Nationals despatched Screech, their bald-eagle mascot, and the Racing Presidents — the bigheaded renditions of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — to the Inner Harbor to distribute freebies reminiscent of Nationals pocket schedules. The Oriole Bird mascot was additionally there selling an impending Orioles-Nationals sequence.
In 2015, the Orioles bought a billboard commercial about 7 miles from Nationals Park depicting the staff’s star gamers and touting an “O’MAZING TIME.” The billboard rankled some Washington sports activities radio hosts and followers who believed the staff had crossed an unwritten line.
This season, the Orioles’ outreach is subtler. Like a base runner taking a lead, the membership is cautious of straying too far.
The staff says boosting its digital promoting means followers in a focused space from Pennsylvania to Virginia — together with Washington — are extra probably than earlier than to see Orioles promotions on web sites and different platforms. Outside Baltimore and Washington, the York, Pennsylvania, space is the staff’s largest market.
After a four-year run on WJZ-FM (105.7 The Fan), Orioles radio broadcasts returned final season to WBAL-AM (WBAL NewsRadio 1090), which has a very sturdy sign the staff believes helps it attain extra distant followers.
While the Orioles haven’t reached the postseason since 2016, they completed as the very best American League membership to overlook the sector final season and are anticipated to contend for a spot once more this yr.
“We definitely saw a boost last season from July through the end of the year when the team was in that short window of a playoff run,” mentioned T.J. Brightman, a senior vp and chief income officer. “We saw a boost in our attendance and a ratings increase.”
The Orioles averaged 16,893 followers per house sport final season, in keeping with Baseball Reference, whereas the Nationals averaged 25,017. That ranked them twenty fourth and seventeenth, respectively, amongst 30 MLB groups.
The Orioles declined to say how giant their season ticket base is or to estimate what share of their followers reside in Washington or its suburbs.
“We still have a very large number of Orioles fans who remain in the Maryland-D.C. suburbs and in northern Virginia, and we continue to want to reach them through games on television and radio, and also through marketing and great content,” Bader mentioned.
The Nationals declined to remark. The staff’s possession has been exploring a sale, a course of difficult by the lingering authorized dispute over how a lot MASN, which is majority-controlled by the Orioles, owes the Nationals for the rights to point out their video games.
The golf equipment share a community and a territory, however their fan bases are distinct.
“In hockey, a lot of Baltimore fans drive to see the Caps play,” mentioned former MASN commentator Phil Wood, who additionally hosted a Nationals postgame radio present. “But there are two separate markets for football and two separate markets for baseball.”
Many Nationals followers resent Orioles proprietor Peter Angelos for opposing Washington’s bid for a staff due to concern that his membership couldn’t endure the lack of its unique market. With Angelos, 93, incapacitated for well being causes, the Orioles are overseen by his son John, the franchise’s chairman and CEO.
But there stays an untold variety of followers who would possibly ardently again one staff however don’t thoughts sneaking peeks on the different. The Orioles’ and Nationals’ stadiums are about 40 miles aside.
“I like the Orioles team, stadium and players, but not their ownership,” mentioned retiree Chris Alvord, a longtime Nationals fan from northern Virginia now residing in Florida. “I will be back to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to see games — maybe for the playoffs.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com