Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig should abandon “inappropriate” plans for placing “Spider-Man 2” movie ads on bases during some games, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday.
“Baseball belongs to the fans, not corporate advertisers,” the New York Democrat wrote Selig in a letter on U.S. Senate stationery.
“Baseball is America’s game. Commercialization in the game is inevitable, but this is another step too far. Is it too much to ask that the playing surface and the players’ uniforms be kept clean of crass commercialization?”
An MLB spokeswoman said she was not sure if Selig, who was traveling, had seen Schumer’s letter. She said MLB had no immediate comment.
MLB earlier this week announced that during the weekend of June 11-13 all 15 teams hosting home games would feature in-stadium promotions of “Spider-Man 2,” whose distributor, Columbia Pictures, will pay $3.6 million to baseball. The promotions include ads on first, second and third bases, as well as in on-deck circles, for at least one game.
But after the deal was disclosed, the Yankees said they would allow the ads only on bases during batting practice – not during the game itself – and even then only before one game.
The Bombers said they will allow “Spider-Man 2” logos atop on-deck circles during that game.