Let’s Walk Minor League Baseball’s Trade Show Floor
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
The topic of Minor League Baseball is receiving more attention in Las Vegas these days thanks to Howard Hughes Corporation’s new re-branding and logo of the 51s into the FlyMen (logo does look like half-fly, half-man, but that works with “Aviators.”)
The Baseball Winter Meetings — and the Minor League Baseball Trade Show — rolled into Las Vegas this week and I chatted with an exhibitor who makes novelty pins about the Aviators’ new logo revealed Saturday. Most local people said they could not make out what the Aviators’ logo was at first glance. The logo design was was kind of busy and complicated, though people liked the colors.
The exhibitor smiled and said Wednesday the logo would be a challenge to duplicate as a pin item — but that he could do it. That’s the spirit!
Minor League Baseball has always occupied an important business niche in sports because of the product’s affordability and the absolute zany irreverence of minor league ball clubs. LVSportsBiz.com walked the Minor League Baseball trade show and came away with these photos.
Bobbleheads are the go-to, default giveaways for teams. Safe and reliable as a freebie, bobbleheads are like miniature mascots that kinda look like the player.
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The 51s are no more, but one exhibitor didn’t get the memo about Saturday’s birth of the Las Vegas Aviators brand and logo.
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Speaking of the new Las Vegas Triple A team name, one exhibitor made a good decision and stuck to creating this headband with the “LV” in the new team colors. I didn’t see any Aviators gear out on the trade show aisles this week except the sweatband.
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Look who’s walking the trade show floor. There’s Don Logan, the patient Aviators team chief who finally got $80 million from the guy on the right, Logan’s longtime pal, former LVCVA chief Rossi Ralenkotter, who somehow convinced the LVCVA board that oversees the TOURISM agency to approve $80 million for private developer Howard Hughes Corp. for a new Aviators ballpark that serves LOCALS. Be patient and thou shall receive $80 million in public dollars.
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Even bats come in colors of the rainbow.
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Every logo is on socks these days, so no surprise a minor league team logo made it on this article of clothing.
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There are some zany and wild minor league team names out there but the Durham Bulls are timeless and a classic.
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More and more architects and engineers are showing up at sports trade shows these days. There’s money to be made building venues.
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Everyone from players to fans run into metal objects at ballparks so it’s always nice to know there’s a company out there making padding to be installed in baseball parks.
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Baseball is a numbers game and the latest numbers are part of sports science these days. Don’t you want to know what the release point angle is? Sure you do.
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