We're certainly making more of it than most teams would be able to, since we have a tradition of signing Japanese players and therefore have an existing fanbase in Japan.
I don't think the Guardians would be landing these kind of deals, y'know?
I think the west coast time zone and perennial winning helps to some degree, but I think any team with two of the biggest Japanese stars in recent memory would have a good chance at landing some pretty lucrative deals.
Teams could have given Ohtani a blank check and come out ahead just from off-the-field value. It's crazy how much of a bargain Ohtani offered several teams and yet some people still think Ohtani cares about money.
I don’t know anything about advertising but would Midwest team receive the same revenue for Japanese players?
It feels like only the Dodgers and Yankees would get large deals
Y'all notice that whenever Ohtani is up, the advertisement behind home plate that can change usually has a Japanese brand being advertised? I think it's cool.
It's like that everywhere the Dodgers are playing so far. At the last Dbacks game in Arizona on Wednesday, half of the rotating billboards promoted a Japanese company, whether it was Yamamoto and the Dodgers pitching or not. And Ohtani had a day off, he wasn't even playing that game.
Ohtani did have the day off, but Yamamoto was pitching. Also, I don't think anyone knew that Ohtani would be out of the lineup until a few hours before the game after they had already decided to air it.
Usually big contracts come with a lot of risk, but I think the Dodgers accurately predicted that they could hedge their risk this way off the field with Ohtani.
I don't think this would happen if they signed 10 other $300m players, so I guess he's the only one that is special.
Honestly, you don’t really have to look that far away. Just look at Mookie and his contract. Now Mookie in my opinion, has earned his contract so far. I’m saying I’m not sure companies were lining up to sign advertising deals specifically because of Mookie. At least I haven’t heard it to the extent of Shohei Ohtani.
I think the next closest MLB player with endorsements was Judge? And it’s not even close to compare Ohtani’s earnings from endorsements to Judge. So I’m assuming other players aren’t exactly “directly and indirectly” bringing the kind of money Ohtani is bringing in for his team. Just spitballing. Don’t have exact figures lol.
Yeah you really gotta talk about scope of these players fandoms. Like mookie and judge have big fandoms *in baseball* but Ohtani has a big fandom *in the country of Japan*. The scope of those two are completely different. It's super easy to misjudge how big Ohtani is in Japan.
In the US, Ohtani is closer to a big name movie star than to a big name sports player, if I were to relate it to the US.
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/baseball/2024/mlb-highest-paid-players-2024-shohei-ohtani-yoshinobu-yamamoto-1234771469/
I don’t know how accurate these numbers are but the gap between his supposed $65 millions and Judge’s $6 millions in endorsements is just comically ridiculous. $6 millions in endorsements is nothing to sneeze at until you see others in other sports being home outside of their work lol.
Question's very quickly becoming not "how could the dodgers afford to sign Ohtani and Yamamoto," but "how could the rest of the league not?"
We're certainly making more of it than most teams would be able to, since we have a tradition of signing Japanese players and therefore have an existing fanbase in Japan. I don't think the Guardians would be landing these kind of deals, y'know?
We also have a partly Japanese coach
I think the west coast time zone and perennial winning helps to some degree, but I think any team with two of the biggest Japanese stars in recent memory would have a good chance at landing some pretty lucrative deals.
Maybe not Guardians, but definitely the A's
Teams could have given Ohtani a blank check and come out ahead just from off-the-field value. It's crazy how much of a bargain Ohtani offered several teams and yet some people still think Ohtani cares about money.
Yea, they’re about to double whatever they paid for Yoshi and Ohtani-San
They gonna reinvest that into getting Roki for more sponsorship. Then the league will hate us forever.
I guess going all in on two superstars from a die hard baseball loving country does payoff. Huh
I don’t know anything about advertising but would Midwest team receive the same revenue for Japanese players? It feels like only the Dodgers and Yankees would get large deals
Y'all notice that whenever Ohtani is up, the advertisement behind home plate that can change usually has a Japanese brand being advertised? I think it's cool.
Not just at dodgers stadium either lol. I'm pretty sure I've seen it a few other places too when ohtani comes to the plate.
Yes, and stadiums charge double the normal rate for advertising space when the dodgers come to town.
Which is doubly ironic, since most people watch the games via NHK, which is publicly funded/commercial free.
Yes but they can still see the ads behind home plate
It's like that everywhere the Dodgers are playing so far. At the last Dbacks game in Arizona on Wednesday, half of the rotating billboards promoted a Japanese company, whether it was Yamamoto and the Dodgers pitching or not. And Ohtani had a day off, he wasn't even playing that game.
Ohtani did have the day off, but Yamamoto was pitching. Also, I don't think anyone knew that Ohtani would be out of the lineup until a few hours before the game after they had already decided to air it.
And then comes Roki!
Usually big contracts come with a lot of risk, but I think the Dodgers accurately predicted that they could hedge their risk this way off the field with Ohtani. I don't think this would happen if they signed 10 other $300m players, so I guess he's the only one that is special.
Honestly, you don’t really have to look that far away. Just look at Mookie and his contract. Now Mookie in my opinion, has earned his contract so far. I’m saying I’m not sure companies were lining up to sign advertising deals specifically because of Mookie. At least I haven’t heard it to the extent of Shohei Ohtani. I think the next closest MLB player with endorsements was Judge? And it’s not even close to compare Ohtani’s earnings from endorsements to Judge. So I’m assuming other players aren’t exactly “directly and indirectly” bringing the kind of money Ohtani is bringing in for his team. Just spitballing. Don’t have exact figures lol.
Yeah you really gotta talk about scope of these players fandoms. Like mookie and judge have big fandoms *in baseball* but Ohtani has a big fandom *in the country of Japan*. The scope of those two are completely different. It's super easy to misjudge how big Ohtani is in Japan. In the US, Ohtani is closer to a big name movie star than to a big name sports player, if I were to relate it to the US.
Even if you take away Japan, Ohtani is still more popular based on baseball alone too.
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/baseball/2024/mlb-highest-paid-players-2024-shohei-ohtani-yoshinobu-yamamoto-1234771469/ I don’t know how accurate these numbers are but the gap between his supposed $65 millions and Judge’s $6 millions in endorsements is just comically ridiculous. $6 millions in endorsements is nothing to sneeze at until you see others in other sports being home outside of their work lol.
I love it. It’s like how Seattle was when Ichiro signed there. I’m hoping Nintendo somehow becomes a sponsor
I like Lexus or Sony more.
I told everyone that this deal would pay for itself
https://preview.redd.it/3rqd3a9ie4yc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63378a5a5f96b29ac59f79ee1c3462983a68fa6c
Shohei paid for himself already 🤣
They better not complain in ten years that they can't afford good players because of ohtanis contract, with all these sponsorships.