Editorial: When merchandising eclipses game itself

Thursday, July 26, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

Baseball purists cringed this season when Las Vegas' triple-A baseball team changed its name to the 51s. Renaming the club after the top-secret military base, which is where conspiracy theorists believe extraterrestrial aliens are kept, was all about marketing. The new name hasn't become any less irritating, but even traditionalists can't dispute the fact that the distinctive alien logo has created a merchandising home run for the team.

The Sun reported Wednesday that there are plenty of people scooping up the new merchandise, ranging from alien earrings to alien baseball caps. For instance, last year when the ball club was called the Stars, the team cap ranked No. 120 among minor-league teams in sales, but the 51s cap is the top-seller this year, a stunning reversal. Don Logan, 51s president and general manager, told reporter Victoria Sun that the hot-selling merchandise "validates" the name change.

It's great to see more interest in the local team, but in this case it's more about novelty than loyalty. Children and even adults may find such merchandise is hip to wear, but that isn't filling seats at Cashman Field. It also wasn't that long ago that people cared whether their home team was winning -- not whether the team's logo had an edgy design.

The 51s' executives aren't pioneers in marketing their team this way, they're just following the disappointing path already taken by major-league teams from all sports. It's no secret that teams change the design of their jerseys every few years so that they can sell additional merchandise and make even more money. There's nothing wrong with earning a profit, but the nature of sports is changing so much that image and marketing have become more important than the game itself. That's too bad.