You’ve seen the title for this entry, and here’s why (via Andrew Baggarly):
A good day for Giants fans who love their bobbles
The Giants haven’t taken the field yet in 2013, but their marketing department already scored one easy victory.
The club released its promotional schedule for the upcoming season on Thursday, and it includes the usual assortment of bobblehead giveaways – with Buster Posey, Barry Zito and Ryan Vogelsong models in the works.
The difference: They’ll be available to the first 40,000 fans – meaning all but the last to arrive will receive one. AT&T Park holds close to 42,000 at standing-room capacity.
That should help to alleviate what had become a major issue on bobblehead giveaways in the past: Fans began lining up hours before the gates opened, making it a mess just to get into the ballpark in a timely fashion. I actually attended a Tim Lincecum bobblehead day as a paying customer some time ago and we almost missed the first pitch, even though we arrived 90 minutes ahead of time.
Those delays also cost the Giants when you consider all those fans waiting to get into the ballpark could be buying food, beer and concessions.
In past years, the Giants limited bobblehead production to 25,000 or fewer.
Well, duh. I’ve never been able to understand why teams are so reluctant to hand out gifts to everyone who shows up. In the Giants’ case, they’ve been making 25,000 paying customers happy ... and 17,000 customers, give or take a few thousand, unhappy. Forget about the money they’re losing on food, beer and concessions while everyone’s still lined up outside the ballpark; what about all the goodwill they’re losing, when li’l Johnny and Jenny don’t get their own Timmy bobbleheads because mom and dad weren’t able to leave for the ballpark early enough.
I mean, if the ballpark holds 42,000 people, I’d think about giving away 42,000 bobbleheads. But I suppose if you’re one of those last 2,000 through the turnstiles, you probably don’t really care about a three-dollar tchotchke.
Anyway, good move by the Giants and I’m happy for Johnny and Jenny.
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