The Orioles continue to insult their fans

[crissfan172]

Sales - Costs = Net Income

[Emory Eagle]

Do the Orioles have to pay royalties (or some licensing fee) to the Yankees or to MLB for use of the Trademark?

Interesting business model. Let the Sox and Yanks suffer the cost of investing in their products "goodwill," sit back and simply print the shirts/gear in Bmore. Who needs the O's anyway? Probably could make more money if we just became a farm team for Boston or NY.

Needless to say, this disgusts me.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I rarely agree with JTrea but in this case I have no choice. This is pathetic.

[survivedc]

For someone who is supposedly a fan, it seems all you do is try to find fault with the franchise.

Can you blame him for being angry about this? You can criticize trea all you want but he is right.

And its not like its too hard to find fault with the franchise anyway.

[333WCamden]

Can you blame him for being angry about this? You can criticize trea all you want but he is right.

And its not like its too hard to find fault with the franchise anyway.

Exactly.

Watching us get destroyed last night at home was hard enough. Hearing all the Yankee chants made it unbearable. Today will be the first game all season that I will not watch. Good luck O's.

[Spoonless]

I know it's a circular argument, but if the O's won more, and the stadium wasn't half-filled with Sox/Yanks "fans," they wouldn't carry that stuff in their store. The Red Sox team store doesn't stock opposing team stuff because they sell out every game, regardless of opponent, and their stadium is usually 90% + Sox fans. When the only games that are seeing any real capacity at OPCY these days are Red Sox and Yankees games and their fans are primarily filling the stadium, it makes business sense to stock some gear. Heck, people on this very board have said that they refuse to go to these games because of the atmosphere these fans provide. How many Orioles-related sales are they losing out on because of stocking Yankees stuff at those games?

When the team is winning enough that the stadium is all O's fans all the time, they'll stop selling other team's paraphernalia. If Fenway was at 25% capacity every night except for O's games, when they shot up to 75% capacity and were filled with O's fans, you would find O's gear in their shop too.

[Wilshade]

The true insult to O's fans is the idiotic walk-up policy. You have to pay more for a walk-up ticket than you do if you buy it in advance. If you want to increase attendance for a losing team, why on earth would you do that? If anything, offer discounts on walk-ups. That might just get some bodies in the seats.

[Sports Guy]

I was disgusted by it too...AROD shirts at the Oriole concession stores in the concourse level.

I get that they are trying to capitalize money wise(just like the f you charge for prime games) but still, that's absurd.

Its one thing for the stores to sell it at the Harbor or the outside concessions but the Orioles concessions themselves? Sorry, that sickens me.

[BehindTimes]

Try going into the actual store in Fenway. Good luck trying to find anything non-Red Sox.

Sure you can find opposing teams gear at their stores. But they just attached insults to the shirts.

[JTrea81]

I know it's a circular argument, but if the O's won more, and the stadium wasn't half-filled with Sox/Yanks "fans," they wouldn't carry that stuff in their store. The Red Sox team store doesn't stock opposing team stuff because they sell out every game, regardless of opponent, and their stadium is usually 90% + Sox fans. When the only games that are seeing any real capacity at OPCY these days are Red Sox and Yankees games and their fans are primarily filling the stadium, it makes business sense to stock some gear. Heck, people on this very board have said that they refuse to go to these games because of the atmosphere these fans provide. How many Orioles-related sales are they losing out on because of stocking Yankees stuff at those games?

When the team is winning enough that the stadium is all O's fans all the time, they'll stop selling other team's paraphernalia. If Fenway was at 25% capacity every night except for O's games, when they shot up to 75% capacity and were filled with O's fans, you would find O's gear in their shop too.

You do realize the O's only get 1/30 of the profit from those Yankees shirts sales. And 1/30 of the profit of shirts that sell in Yankee Stadium goes to the Orioles as well. The Orioles aren't making money for themselves, rather all 30 teams. And I could care less about how much money they'd lose by not having Yankees gear for sale. I doubt it's a huge profit boost for them like ticket sales are. My guess would be it pisses off Orioles fans more than it helps them earn extra revenue.

[Spoonless]

You do realize the O's only get 1/30 of the profit from those Yankees shirts sales. And 1/30 of the profit of shirts that sell in Yankee Stadium goes to the Orioles as well. The Orioles aren't making money for themselves, rather all 30 teams. And I could care less about how much money they'd lose by not having Yankees gear for sale. I doubt it's a huge profit boost for them like ticket sales are. My guess would be it pisses off Orioles fans more than it helps them earn extra revenue.

The store itself is making at least 50% margin on all their products. It's probably closer to 70%, since they likely get them at a lower cost than other stores and sell them for a higher price. How much is a t-shirt at the stadium shop? $24.95? The retail store isn't only getting 1/30 of the profit from the retail sale. I'm pretty sure that the Orioles organization doesn't run and maintain that store, and that it falls under the purview of the company they contracted out to to handle concessions, vendors and retail within the park. That company is going to do what it can to maximize in-store profits. It is a smart business move to sell Yankees and Red Sox apparel when these teams visit, because a large portion of people who will be entering the store are fans of these teams. If it was a smaller percentage of the crowd that were fans, maybe it wouldn't make sense to carry the items, but that isn't the case.

[nattyboh]

It's the business of baseball. All teams do it. The sooner you get over it, the better off you'll be...because you aren't going to change it.

this is the biggest loser attitude I have ever seen.

[SammyBirdland]

Why don't the souvenir shops at Camden Yards just sell t-shirts that say "ORIOLES SUCK" or "ORIOLES - 13 CONSECUTIVE LOSING SEASONS"? That way they can sell the same shirts to all our opposing fans instead of having to swap out different merchandise for the different team fans who want to see us fail that night.

[nattyboh]

we might as well get the team to move somewhere else.

i am fed up. we really dont deserve a team.

[The Wedge]

You know why certain other parks don't have as much gear of other teams? Because the people that run those things can easily track who is coming to their parks, and in the case of the ones you really notice at OPaCY, like the Yankees and the Red Sox, the visiting fans are a very low percentage of the gates. Easiest way to slowly phase out their gear at our park is to have more Oriole fans show up, especially in head to head games. Winning would help, too, but then again, if the Orioles were winning, you wouldn't give a rat's hindquarters what was offered for sale. You'd probably think it was funny.

It's a business. They're playing the numbers. Ain't gonna change.