Twenty years ago, city leaders went door-to-exclusive-door selling signs to pay for improvements to Three Rivers Stadium. For a 10-year commitment to pay $100,000 a year, about a dozen of the city's leading corporate citizens hung their logos above the field as a show of community spirit.
Seems almost quaint.
The owners of Rolling Rock Beer recently worked out a multi-level marketing package for the new Heinz Field that will put them in front of thousands of partying fans. The Latrobe brewer is buying a permanent place on the main scoreboard plus rotational signs between the lower and upper decks. And, reaching beer drinkers where they spend the most time, Rolling Rock will put its name on more than 60,000 cupholders attached to the stadium's seats.
Other marketing contracts have been done or are in the works with grocery chain Giant Eagle, dairy company Dean Foods, Coca-Cola and builders supplier 84 Lumber.
One sports marketing expert calculates the new stadium could generate between $8 million and $10 million annually just in signage.
"I would think that's a fair number and they may be thinking even higher," said Dick Sherwood, of Front Row Marketing Services in Newtown, Pa., a northern suburb of Philadelphia.
The dark ages
Three Rivers Stadium was built at a time when local ad revenues weren't much of a factor in the major league sports equation. Certainly, no one planned for boards that could flip or flash or play commercials.
But the city-sold medallions of the 1980s demonstrated the revenue potential tied up in the massive concrete walls seen by thousands of baseball and football fans every year.
In the early 1990s, officials hired Spectacor Management Group to run the stadium and to try to increase its revenue potential. The new managers didn't have a lot of space to sell, recalled Sherwood, who worked on the project. The spots sold by the city's Stadium Authority were still tied up in long-term contracts.
Gradually, new opportunities were crafted. A sign behind home plate gave advertisers a chance at television exposure. Flip boards allowed at least three companies to share viewing time.
Technological improvements meant more ads could go into less space. Instead of selling one static sign for $100,000, the three spots on a flip board might go for $40,000 each. That would open the door to advertisers with less to spend, but push the total revenue up to $120,000.
A new marquee on the Allegheny River side of the stadium took advantage of the exterior exposure near some of the Pittsburgh's busiest roads. Imagine how many advertisers can share a sign using digital technology.
"We beefed up the numbers pretty good," Sherwood said.
By the time the doomed facility finished its last season, he figured, the signs added over the years probably brought in somewhere in the range of $4 million. Under a deal worked out in the mid-'90s, the Pirates got about 60 percent of that, the Steelers about 40 percent.
Buy a moment
All of the advertising revenues in the new stadiums go to the teams. Since they each have their own facility, they don't have to share anymore. But they do have to contribute to the construction costs and help with the upkeep, not to mention find ways to pay for expensive player contracts.
It's enough to motivate anyone to maximize the possibilities.
When the Steelers' marketers sent out standard proposals for the top-level Heinz Field marketing packages -- basically starting points for negotiations -- the asking prices were in the $1 million range, give or take a few hundred thousand. That's not just for signs, of course. The proposal might include space in the program, use of a luxury box, tickets to games and special events.
Each potential advertiser studies the proposal for ways to get a better price and, just as important, for ways to make a better fit for his business. That could mean asking for tickets to a meet-the-players night instead of sponsoring a half-time event, or trying for a sign next to the play clock rather than putting three on the concourse.
Marketing staffs can get pretty creative. At PNC Park, green-and-white Post-Gazette sleeves fit over the turnstile bars and yellow Duquesne Light labels perch atop the foul poles. Coca-Cola has agreed to put its name on the Steelers' Great Hall, which the club hopes to keep open throughout the year.
"Obviously the stuff that really, really works is the stuff that resonates with the brand," said John Harpur, senior vice president and media director for Downtown ad agency Marc USA/Pittsburgh. That might mean The Gap clothing store buying space on the gap in a stadium wall or Mrs. T's Pierogies sponsoring a race at the Pirates game.
Randy Vankirk can already envision how the new 84 Lumber signs will look in Heinz Field. But then, he's seen the 3D video presentation put together by the Steelers' representatives and he's got a color photo on his desk.
"It's pretty neat, actually," said Vankirk, who serves as vice president of marketing and advertising for the Eighty Four-based chain of lumber and supply stores.
The fun of seeing 84 Lumber's name in lights wouldn't have closed the deal. But research by its ad agency, Blattner Brunner, indicated its target audience -- professional builders -- love sports. They read sports pages in newspapers, listen to sports on the radio and watch sports on TV. "That kept popping up in every medium," said Petra Arbutina, vice president, media director for Blattner Brunner.
So 84 Lumber bought a package with signage at PNC Park (just look over in right field, you can't miss the big one), and hammered out a contract for Heinz Field.
Vankirk won't disclose the price but he does lay out other details: In addition to a spot on the main scoreboard, 84 Lumber will be one of the companies with ads scrolling through the rotational signs between the main and upper decks. For 20 minutes during pre-game activities and four minutes each quarter, 84 Lumber will be somewhere in the mix.
Then there will be the "moments of exclusivity" -- six minutes of pregame and 60 seconds every quarter when all the rotational signs will tout the chain. The whole stadium will pretty much turn into an ad for 84 Lumber.
Even people running out to get food are likely to catch a glimpse of one of the chain's six concourse signs. "It'll be difficult not to see them," said a pleased Vankirk.
Look at me
The current theory in stadium advertising signage leans toward a minimalist approach, believe it or not. Wall-to-wall ads, like those found in minor league baseball parks, have fallen out of fashion.
For the advertiser's part, it's just too easy to get lost in the cacophony. For the teams, less signage feels less commercial yet can command higher prices.
Technology makes it possible. Just using static billboards, "You'd have to plaster the entire stadium inside and out," said sports marketing consultant Dean Bonham, of The Bonham Group in Denver. That is if you want to sell the same amount of space.
Another trend in sign design is to avoid monotony. Those flat medallions of Three Rivers Stadium, all the same size and all lined up around the face of the upper deck, would never be approved these days.
In deciding what to do inside PNC Park, Sherwood said, variety was important. "We wanted a nice mix of fixed signs and moving signs."
Some people want permanent placement because they don't want to take a chance that Sports Illustrated will take a picture which would have shown their sign in the background but didn't because their logo had just rotated off. But movement on the scoreboard keeps fans looking up.
At a recent Pirates game, two guys watching the Pirates struggle on the field started speculating on why the center field wall was just painted a plain, dark green. Future advertising space, said one. A man sitting nearby leaned over to explain that Major League Baseball doesn't allow any ads in the batter's line of vision.
But that's one of the few restrictions on major league ballparks, which means companies hoping to get national exposure during the sports highlights like to be on the left field and right field walls.
The National Football League is much less accommodating, banning ads directly behind the goal posts and along the sidelines. League officials don't want local advertisers horning in on their lucrative national TV time.
If Federated Investors goes ahead with a Heinz Field deal, it will be because the Pittsburgh-based mutual fund giant has increased its efforts to build a local presence.
Pitt's field
The Steelers aren't the only ones selling ad space at Heinz Field. With University of Pittsburgh games scheduled there, too, the Oakland school's athletic department is working to line up between 14 and 16 sponsors before the first game on Sept. 1
Last year, the college team shared Three Rivers Stadium but could only put up banners. This year, Pitt can tap into the technology that runs the scoreboard and the various rotational signs.
"When we play, our sponsors will be up on the signs," said Rex Hough, assistant athletic director for corporate marketing. Even the padding in the end zone will change for Pitt games, allowing sponsors such as clothier Aeropostale and Mellon Financial Corp. to reach the collegiate audience.
Hough won't talk financial numbers, but he's expecting a boost. "With the new venues, our ad opportunities increase and our ad revenues increase."
Watching all this activity with a certain bemusement is Bill Stewart, who had been assistant executive director of the Stadium Authority but is now helping wind down operations for the agency that long held jurisdiction over Three Rivers Stadium.
He was there when the teams were making the case for taking control of the advertising and its revenue. Now they've got what they want.
Stewart laughed as he said, "We'll see how great a job they do."
Companies seek big impact with ad blitz 
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