St. Louis Falls Short on Another MLB All Star Game Campaign

Last year, Major League Baseball continued a unique promotion in New York City to commemorate the 2008 MLB All Star game at Yankee Stadium. As you may remember, MLB placed 8 foot replicas of the Statue of Liberty throughout the city of New York.

42 different painted statues were hidden across NYC, celebrating the 30 current MLB teams, along with the Brooklyn Dodgers and various other New York City baseball related monuments. We were somewhat upset that Keith Hernandez and/or the entire cast of Seinfeld didn’t receive their own customized Lady Liberty, but that’s besides the point. The concept, in general, was fantastic.

St. Louis has taken a slightly different angle for this year’s All Star Game at Busch Stadium. And no, we’re not talking about the holy grail of softball fields being built about, oh, roughly 10 yards away from the Cardinals’ home field. We’re talking about the miniature, custom-painted Arches that began popping up across the city about 5 days ago.

At first glance, we were hopeful that this campaign was similar to last year’s. It’s not. For whatever reason, St. Louis stopped short on this campaign.  Fans looking to snap a picture next to their home team’s custom-painted Gateway Arch better not spend too long looking, because it’s not here.

More information from Sports Business Daily:

“MLB and the Cardinals this week will begin the installation of 16 miniature Gateway Arches around downtown St. Louis and Forest Park in commemoration of the July 14 All-Star Game and related events. The downsized All-Star Arches, measuring about 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall, will be decorated with various MLB-related logos and colors, and recalls similar efforts in prior All-Star Game host cities such as the miniature Statues of Liberty placed around N.Y. last summer and the oversized cowboy boots used in Houston in ‘04.”

The emergence of the miniature statues in New York created justifiable buzz from tourists and local residents alike, hoping to locate their team’s Lady Liberty. St. Louis is fortunate to have another nationally-recognized monument, so the adaption of such a campaign seemed logical.  But apparently, St. Louis is stopping short with 16 statues, and most of them seem completely random.

The general concept of using the Gateway Arch as the symbol for this year’s All Star Game is fantastic.  The only issue is quantity.  One for every MLB team.  That would have been an interesting way to carry on the tradition.

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