Photo Op: Entrance to Dodger Stadium

By Jeannette - Monday March 12th 2007

dodgers: angels :: crips:bloods

Apparently Frank McCourt doesn’t go to Dodger Stadium the ghetto way…by my house.

Or this would be gone too.

Not that I care about the baseball…and I love the Anaheim Angels’ logo… it’s all Red and pretty and there’s something devilish about that font…the two little points on the side of the A, then they go and cap it with a halo… but seriously….

The entire route to Dodger Stadium on Sunset Boulevard is a huge visual FU to the Dodgers. Every single bus ad is this logo. Most billboards are this logo. It’s kind of like gang tagging in someone else’s neighborhood. And to top it all off….there was a HUGE billboard across from the entrance to Dodger’s Stadium on Sunset and Elysian Park.

That lasted about a week.

I’d love to have been in the room when that phone call went down.

The above billboard is at the entrance to Dodger Stadium off Broadway. Apparently the powers that be haven’t clued in to this one yet.

Here’s what the one at Sunset and Elysian looks like now:

dodgers:angels

What now?

Post a comment
See More In LA Culture, Photo Op, Sports
Browse the archives
Losanjealous Home

22 Responses to “Photo Op: Entrance to Dodger Stadium”

DF : 3/12/07 at 3:36 pm

Hey, interesting. It’s always puzzled me that the Angels have (at least in recent years) tried to horn in on the Dodgers’ market instead of going for their own natural base in Orange County. OC is a completely separate metropolitan area–culturally, geographically, economically. You’d think the Angels would do better tapping into that and laying claim to their own discrete market than they would trying to compete on the Dodgers’ own turf. I’m curious if they’re having any success. Last time I lived in LA, it was thoroughly a Dodgers town, and I find it hard to believe an ad blitz from Anaheim is going to change that.
Pete : 3/12/07 at 4:01 pm

OC is a completely separate metropolitan areaâ€“culturally, geographically, economically.

That’s what folks from Orange County like to tell themselves, but there are still gazillions of OC residents who saddle up and commute to downtown Los Angeles or the Westside every morning. What’s really interesting is that now the southeast suburbs of Los Angeles–Norwalk, Bellflower, Cerritos, Whittier, etc.–are becoming bedroom communities for Orange County.

Orange County is affluent but it is not a large market. Arte Moreno clearly understands this. So long as the Angels put a better product on the field than the Dodgers–and that’s been the case for most of the past decade–the Angels can continue to grab market share.

And for all the whining about the Santa Ana Freeway, it’s easier to get to the Big A from a lot of metro Los Angeles than it is to get to Dodger Stadium. From a logistical perspective, Chavez Ravine was an awful place to put a baseball stadium. If the city had built Dodger Stadium on the site of the old Wrigley Field in South Central or where the Convention Center is now, it’d be far less of a nightmare to get in and get out.
corey : 3/12/07 at 5:37 pm

It is really all about ad revenue, not grabbing the Dodgers market share. If the Angels can successfully convince â€œMadison Avenueâ€ that they are in fact a Los Angeles team and not an Orange County team, they move from a market of hundreds of thousands, to millions. Imagine being able to charge ten times as much for the ad banners you see along the foul line or the sponsor logos that appear on the various give-aways, like ball cap night. You would expect to pay more to advertise with the New York Yankees than with the Milwaukee Brewers. Same concept applies here.
DF : 3/12/07 at 7:23 pm

Interesting points. I suppose the Angels’ thinking is that they have OC as a captive market so they don’t need to work to keep people coming from Newport or Anaheim, but moving into/glomming onto LA could yield some advantages.

I still wonder to what extent this has had any effect on the fan base. Growing up in the E. San Gabriel Valley, I knew about as many Angels as Dodgers fans (and it was about as easy to get to the Big A as to Chavez Ravine). I’m still skeptical that people from LA proper or the Valley will ever see the Angels as their team, but then again I wasn’t around during the Angels’ playoff runs in the past few years, so I can’t say for sure.

If the point is just to change national perceptions of the Angels’ geographical origin, that might be an easier task. People in the east often think San Diego is just a suburb of LA, so if the Angels keep insisting they’re an LA team, they might convince most of America (however bogus that claim may be).
cindylu : 3/12/07 at 9:18 pm

I have a friend who lives in Boyle Heights and suggested that I blog about the billboards. She told me that she hadn’t seen ANY Dodgers billboards. I’ve seen one right off the 10 and Robertson. Maybe this wouldn’t be so weird if the Dodgers just stepped it up?
Pablo : 3/12/07 at 9:38 pm

Ehh, Arte has done this(advertising on Sunset and in Echo Park) for 3-4 straight years. Same old shit. He advertises, the Dodgers attendance grows whether the team is good(2006) or god awful(2005) .
Jeannette : 3/12/07 at 10:01 pm

Really? This is the first year I’ve noticed it and thought it was ballsy and kind of rude. The only times I’ve ever gone to Anaheim to see a game have been to see the Indians (hometown) and to see the Yankees.

I guess living next to Dodgers Stadium kind of makes me feel like they’re my team even though I only go to maybe 6 or 8 games a season and don’t pay much attention to the games on tv unless I’m in a bar or in another town. Dodgers games are fun as hell, no matter if the team is sucking or doing well.

It just seems weird to me that the entire path to every entrance to the stadium is Angelized. Are these billboards all over Santa Monica, Culver City, Palms and the valley too? Haven’t seen any in Burbank.
Oscar : 3/12/07 at 10:54 pm

Once the season starts, more ads should pop up. It’s not hard to find Dodgers advertising. It’s on buses, benchs, pocket schedule dispensers at your local liqour store or 76 station. The whole advertising thing near Dodger Stadium is the same deal as Oregon advertising near USC a few years ago. Just to stir things up with a “rival”. There’s too many die hard Dodgers fans for the Angels to make people switch allegiance.
EL CHAVO! : 3/13/07 at 2:01 am

Dodger ads are everywhere: hats, shirts, skin. That LA logo they use has been taken over to represent the city itself, it almost doesn’t even mean baseball anymore. Ha, ha, so much for your trademark!
Jeannette : 3/13/07 at 2:18 am

I got the BEST Dodgers shirt ever. (and I even bought it at the Dodgers store in the stadium) It’s black with Old English Script that says “Los Angeles Dodgers – Chavez Ravine – 3 Strikes You’re Out” (and it huge skull instead of the Dodgers Logo. So hood!)
MikeH : 3/13/07 at 9:39 am

I’m an OC resident who makes the trip out to L.A. at least twice a week. Venice, Hollywood, Downtown, East L.A. – seriously, these ads are everywhere. I commented to my friend about this just last week. I hardly see any of these behind the Orange curtain.
e@v : 3/15/07 at 3:02 am

Here’s the smaller sign on Sunset Blvd as seen one month ago before it was removed.
cindylu : 3/15/07 at 12:14 pm

jeannette,
that t-shirt you write about sounds like it should be on the back of a raiders fan. maybe they’re trying to market to the audience that loves both the dodgers and the raiders?
Al : 3/17/07 at 2:23 am

The “Los Angeles Angels?” L.A. wannabees! Get real. This is bogus, phony. Nearly 50 years ago, the Angels disassociated themselves from L.A. and moved away. They are an Orange County outfit. Follow the money trail. No Orange County based team can ever represent L.A.

I would have respect for the Angels if they were true to their identity. Orange County can’t reflect Los Angeles in respect to neighborhoods, community, demographics, size, geograpy, history, struggle and triumph. The Angels just like Orange County in general have identity issues and must acquire a unique identity.

The reality is because of size and history, the Angels will always be in the shadow of the Dodgers and Orange County will always be in the shadow of L.A.

Regardless of the Angels’ advertising, the truth is that the Anaheim Angels are in Anaheim and can contribute nothing for L.A. Follow the money. If the Dodgers never won another game and the Angels never lost another game the truth would still be the truth.

The Dodgers have what the Angels want and can never achieve: location, history, legacy, tradition, societal change, geographical market size, etc.

Even their latest color scheme is a direct and obvious contrast to Dodger blue. Another identity problem originated because legacy teams like the Cardinals, Phillies, Reds, already had the same color years before.

Have some balls, be who you are.
corey : 3/17/07 at 12:44 pm

Al, your points are valid, though biased, but that’s ok. The problem is you are seeing it from a local perspective (which is probably appropriate for a blog about LA). The Angeles are not really interested in changing the hearts of True Blue LA fans. They are interested in changing the perception of the national audience. Take for example the Mets and the Yankees. Both teams go by the name “New York”. Neither team plays in Manhattan. The Mets play in Queens. The Yankees play in the Bronx. On a local level, there is segregation between the boroughs. People in Queens support the Mets (generally), while the rest of New York supports the Yankees. Yet, on a national level, both teams use the iconic imagery of the city en masse. For example, itâ€™s not uncommon to see either team use the Downtown skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Empire State Building in their promotional items. The point is that there are two public views of the teams; the local view, which makes a distinction between Queens and the Bronx, and a national view which doesn’t. This way, both teams can lay claim to the entire city for their national ad revenue. You said it best with â€œfollow the moneyâ€. If the Angeles can establish themselves as an â€œLA areaâ€ team, they can charge more to their clients then if they remained an OC team.
Al : 3/20/07 at 12:38 am

Hey Corey: I have no sympathy for the Angels sorry attempts to try and market themselves by masquerading as a Los Angeles team for a few dollars more. Tough. They are based in Orange County, deal with it. Doesn’t Orange County have greater marketing prowess than places like Milwauke or Tampa Bay? There’s a lot of cash in Orange Couty. So what’s the problem?

Also your analogy about New York City doesn’t work. Brooklyn and Queens are boroughs in New York City proper, just like Manhattan. Orange County is not an L.A. entity. “Southern California” which is a very large area also includes popular San Diego.

The Angels will have to scratch out their identity / existence amongst these other two teams/ areas. The archrival of the Dodgers remains the San Francisco Giants.
Vinny : 6/23/07 at 10:46 am

When the Angels win their 7th world series I might get interested. Until then, secure your pie hole !
Mike : 4/20/08 at 12:41 pm

Whats funny to me is the only people that care or WHINE about the Angels having the “LA” name are those loud mouth Dodgers fans. Its not about trying to replace a team. I am sure the Angels organization isnt trying to do that. If that were the case, who would we beat during the freeway series. Since interleague play started, and the games matter, I wonder who has the beaten who more…hint, its not the Dodgers. And sure you have won 6 World Series, thats is a feat that cannot be denied, but until you win one again you can follow suit with the Pirates, Cubs and even the Cardinals, (cause we all know that recent championship was a fluke) and be a team of the past. Because the Dodgers havent won anything since before most of you reached puberty. And finally….dont be too upset I mean it is a former Dodger that is at the helm…too bad the Dodgers organization didnt think he was good enough to manage.
Mike : 4/20/08 at 12:43 pm

“LA” on the Dodgers caps stands for “Losers Again” until the Dodgers can win something
in this life time
Robert : 4/21/08 at 11:30 am

cool, very cool observation. this is the kind of writing we need, not that bacon-wrapped hot dog crap posted last week.
Will : 5/2/08 at 10:15 pm

In fact, many Angel fans oppose the name change. Not only Dodger fans dislike. Orange County residents have, for quite some time now, tried to disassociate themselves from L.A. They didn’t approve the name change; Mr. Moreno unilaterally decided to change it.
Paul : 4/28/09 at 12:15 am

Angels are a bunch of clowns.
What a bunch of wanna be’s

« Previous Post: Razorlight @ El Rey, 3/10/07 | Home | Next Post: Do Make Say Think @ Troubadour, 3/10/07 »

Photo Op: Entrance to Dodger Stadium

What now?

22 Responses to “Photo Op: Entrance to Dodger Stadium”

Leave a Reply