Batter up!

Major League Baseball is at the epicenter of sports licensing. After all, it was way back when that baseball trading cards were included in packs of cigarettes as a little something extra. But those were days long before the term “sports licensing” was coined.

While MLB does not release sales figures for its licensed products, licensing industry members polled by Playthings said those sales should peg between $2.8 and $3.3 billion today. And despite facing a handful of publicity dilemmas, the sport and the marketing of its products move forward. This year, with the Boston Red Sox breaking an 86-year World Series drought, Boston-licensed products flew off the shelves.

“Couldn't keep anything in stock,” says John M. Davis, president of USAopoly, Encinitas, Calif. “We quickly made a Red Sox Monopoly game 30 days after the World Series and that sold out completely.”

With MLB engrained in America's society like the rings of an ancient oak tree, the license itself and league cooperation with licensees create added value to even the most mundane toy or game.

“The Major League Baseball is doing a lot for us; to a certain extent it has added to our credibility,” says Will Coleburn, managing director, Kid Galaxy, Manchester, N.H. “Major League Baseball is very supportive in working with us.”

Prominent in the Kid Galaxy MLB line is its R/C Bullpen Car (SRP $25). Coleburn says the vehicle is aimed at the 5-years-plus age market, but “has found its way onto a lot of people's desk because it is so unique. It's basically become an impulse buy.”

The most storied rivalry in baseball comes to table top in USAopoly's Rivalry Chess—Red Sox vs. Yankees. Combining the love of sports with the cerebral exercise of the ultimate strategy game, players try to capture their opponent's manger. The pieces, or players, are dressed in authentic MLB uniforms with exacting detail. The game has a suggested SRP of $39.95 and comes in a collector tin.

The licensed MLB products available run long and deep. Key chains, flatware, insulated mugs as well as the staple impulse buy—trading cards.

Manufacturers say a retailer can take the best product and minimize sales with poor merchandising due to lack of visual perspective.

“If you look at our [Red Sox vs. Yankees] chess set, the front displays the actual figures, so we'd tell [retailers] to face the box out,” says USAopoly's Davis. “But it best sells out of the box … like under glass or something. The worst thing you can do is lay it on its side.”

Todd McFarlane, founder of McFarlane Toys, Tempe, Ariz., raised the bar for sports action figures when he picked up licenses after the major manufacturers retreated from sports action figures in the mid-'90s. While the product is high quality, there is a retail method behind the success.

“You have to approach each store on an individual basis because each store is different,” says McFarlane. “You don't merchandise the same way in Toys “R” Us as you do in Wal-Mart. “Like in Wal-Mart, we're selling NASCAR figures in the die-cast sections because that's where NASCAR fans shop.”

McFarlane tells Playthings that retailers must understand they are not selling four different sports; they're selling a complete section, heavy in different sports at different times of the year.

“Now I [as a partner to retailer] have to manage that section,” he says “For example, I can't get my NBA Sports Picks in unless the NFL sells. If there is a backup, it doesn't allow the next sport in the door.

“So I need to do two things: the packaging needs to be identical for each sport; and pricing needs to be identical for each sport,” McFarlane continues. “Each peg in the section needs to be identical for each sport; it needs to be stock boy proof. That makes it easy for the retailer and the consumer.”