What will they think of next

Wait, what?

Audi today announced that the brand is now the official luxury vehicle of the New York Yankees. The new relationship also includes the naming of the Audi Yankees Club, an exclusive viewing location and membership restaurant, located on the H&R Block Suite Level in left field. The sponsorship begins with the opening of Yankee Stadium and extends through the 2011 season.

Financial terms were not released.

I guess this means all non-Audi luxury cars driven by Yankee players, employees, and fans are now deemed “unofficial” contraband and will thus be confiscated and destroyed.


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lar
15 years ago

For each of the last couple of seasons, the Brewers have had a partnership with Mercedes-Benz. The field level party area, directly behind the rightfield fence, has been called the Mercedes Benz Field Haus and if a Brewers player leads off the fifth inning with a homerun that lands in the Field Haus “on the fly” (they always have to say “on the fly”), then someone in the audience would win a 1-year lease of a Mercedes. Needless to say, that never happened. Plus, everyone wondered why Mercedes felt like Milwaukee’s blue collar fans were the best use of their money.

Of course, Mercedes pulled out of the deal in December. The area will now be called the “AirTran Airways Landing Zone.” Cheap, no-nonsense airline? Yeah, that seems to fit Milwaukee a little better than Mercedes…

Aaron Moreno
15 years ago

Will A4’s be replacing the golf carts? Because that would be fantastic.

YankeesfanLen
15 years ago

Does this mean that Yugos are the official vehicles at Citifield?

BillyBeaneismyHero
15 years ago

Jason –

I agree that they have to pay for “the behemoth” somehow, but weren’t they doing that indirectly through taxpayer dollars (i.e. tax exempt bonds)?  Ok…that only partially covered the $1B plus cost of the park.  But still.  I’d be making fun of any team who decided they need a corporately named exclusive club that’s located in a corporately named club section—even the Red Sox.  This whole idea of corporate naming contracts have gotten completely out of control.

By the way, you haven’t seen a CC behemoth yet.  Just wait until 2011 or 2012 after he adopts Joey Chestnut’s (who has one of the great porn names of all time) training regimen, and starts eating 60 hot dogs a day.

Pete Toms
15 years ago

I went to Soldier Field a handful of years ago and scalped some seats that ended up being in the Cadillac club seating or whatever the hell they called it.  No, I don’t like advertising all over the place at a ball game either but the Yanks are hardly alone here.

Bill
15 years ago

Many teams (including the Sox) have sepearate sections with sponsors’ names attached.

How is this even worth discussing?

YX
15 years ago

On the other hand, there is “EMC club” aka “The .406 Club” and “The 600 Club”

Changing name to EMC used to tick me off to no end. But then a couple of my friends started working at EMC and can hook me up with tickets, I got over it.

Craig Calcaterra
15 years ago

Bill—are you saying you can’t acknowledge a continuum of awkwardness that begins with a simple sponsorship—the Ritz Suites or the Coca-Cola Pavillion—to a sponsorship within a sponsorship that includes a silly appelation: The H&R;Block Level Audi Yankees’ Club, brought to you by the official luxury car of the New York Yankees?

At what point does it change from an arguably classy form of underwriting and product identification to a tansparent effort to suck as many corporate dollars as possible?  Will it still not be worth discussing if they name each individual seat in an Audi Suite after a brand of chewing gum?  And can they name each armrest after a different laundry detergent?

BillyBeaneismyHero
15 years ago

I really love the fact that it’s the Audi Yankees Club that’s located on the H&R;Block suite of the club level.  That’s taking corporate sponsership to the max.  What’s next?  Corporately sponsored parking lots and seats?  Instead of in the A lot, you park in the Fed Ex Kinko’s lot.  Instead of sitting in section 204, row GG, seat 7, you’ll actually be sitting in the Coke Zero seat. 

This has really gotten out of hand.  Then again, it’s the Yankees, so what do you expect.

eric
15 years ago

the red sox have a similar deal with volvo although i dont think volvo has an area within fenway with its name on it outside of the baggyboard above the monster seats.

Chipmaker
15 years ago

Does any other organization, anywhere in the world, have an official luxury vehicle?

Jason @ IIATMS
15 years ago

@BillyBeaneismyHero: They gotta pay for this behemoth (no, not talking about CC) somehow.