LITTLE LEAGUERS GET ROSE FLOAT
Parade: DirecTV surprises World Series champs with sponsorship
The Little League World Series champions from El Segundo now have plans for New Year's Day: riding on a float through Pasadena.
The El Segundo Little League AllStars, who won the World Series in August, will ride aboard a Rose Parade float Jan. 1.
DirecTV is sponsoring the float, which officials from the major television services company announced Monday, about two months after the All-Stars received an offer from the Tournament of Roses to be featured in its 135th New Year's Day parade.
The announcement occurred at DirecTV's corporate headquarters in El Segundo, with executives unveiling a rendering of the 35-foot float that will have the theme “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
“It is an honor to be able to participate in the 135th Rose parade, which brings so many families, communities and people of all walks of life together,” El Segundo manager Danny Boehle said in a statement. “It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, much like being able to participate and then win the LLWS.”
The boys and coaches were initially invited to DirecTV's offices to assemble wellness kits for families at Ronald McDonald House. They spent the first part of their visit doing just that.
“It's been such an amazing journey,” said Kathy Narahara, mom to star slugger Louis Lappe, as she watched him and his teammates write notecards for the wellness kits.
“We are so happy to have the opportunity to give back,” she added. “They've been the beneficiaries of so many cool things. It's great that DirecTV is facilitating this.”
But then came the announcement
about the Rose Parade float.
DirecTV Chief Marketing Officer Vince Torres made the surprise announcement from a podium right after the Little Leaguers had gathered for a team photo.
“When DirecTV heard that you needed some funds,” Torres said, “we knew it was time to step up to the plate.”
A rendering of the float then appeared on a bigscreen television. The Little Leaguers and coaches began cheering.
The float, designed by Artistic Entertainment Services with help from Direc TV's advertising agency, will showcase the 12 El Segundo Little League team members and their three coaches on a baseball field, which will use forced perspective, with a scoreboard high over head. At the head of the float will be a gleaming gold trophy and the local Little League team's logo.
As the short presentation came to a close, the team crowded around the screen to get a closer look. As they did, true to form, Boehle huddled up next to his team and reminded them to say thank you.
After the announcement, Narahara said she was speechless.
“To be part of all this and to have a huge company like DirecTV be involved in this,” she said, “we're just so very grateful.”
As for her son, Lappe, he said he has fond memories of getting up early to watch the Rose Parade in person when he was about 6.
“I think it's awesome,” Lappe said, “since we watched it every year, and now we're going to be in it.”
Since the team clinched the championship in August, DirecTV executives have been looking for a way to honor their neighbors in a natural way, said Jon Greer, DirecTV's vice president of communications and community.
“This is our hometown team,” Greer said in a Friday interview. “Our employees have had kids who have gone through this same Little League system.”
For DirecTV, headquartered in El Segundo since its inception nearly 30 years ago, the opportunity to have its company's first Rose Parade entry was an intersection of many things, Greer said.
“We live and work in El Segundo,” Greer said. “El Segundo now is a leader in sports. We're a leader in sports broadcasting, and we wanted to reinvest in sports of the future.”
Celebrating local youth heroes on an international stage in what is dubbed America's best New Year's tradition was a perfect union, Greer said.
“This is a unique way for us to show up in a way we've never shown up before,” Greer said.
But Greer and his team made it clear the float will focus on the boys.
“There are all sort of parameters that have to be met for this float surrounding the different logos and signage,” said Nick Ammazzalorso, senior public relations director for DirecTV. “And we want to have our presence there in the most tasteful way.”
El Segundo officials, meanwhile, are also excited about the city's first foray onto the international stage via a Rose Parade presence, said Mayor Drew Boyles. It was just a matter of finding the right partner, he added, and DirecTV recognized the value and the opportunity.
“It's the perfect El Segundo partnership to celebrate how sports excellence brings communities together,” Boyles said in a statement before the announcement.
Everyone at DirecTV, Greer said, is getting in on the action, helping out on a venture that it is new for his company.
“It's uncharted territory,” Greer said, “which means you're gonna get out what you put into it.”
Exactly how much money DirecTV is spending to sponsor the last-hour float is unclear. The cost of designing and constructing a float, according to Tournament of Roses officials, can begin at $275,000. And over the past three years, the cost of flowers has increased by more than 40%, according to Tim Estes, president of Fiesta Parade Floats, one of the largest Rose Parade float builders.
“We're not getting into the total cost,” Greer said of the DirecTV float. “But we are excited to be able to do this for the team.”
Much of the total cost of a Rose Parade float depends upon the sophistication of design, the variety of materials used and whether there's animation, Estes said.
As design details are finalized, the DirecTV team was asked whether there might be someone on board the float singing the classic “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or whether the song might be playing on a loudspeaker. After all, this year's Rose Parade theme is: “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.”
As far as music goes, Ammazzalorso said, designers and builders are still working out what they can and can't do in conjunction with the Tournament of Roses.
As for the float itself, construction and decoration has to take place on short order.
Typically, a Rose Parade float takes about four months from conception to completion, said Heidi Hoff, senior director of marketing with AES. The team, from today forward, has less than two months.
“More time is always better, but if we can do it on short notice, we will,” Hoff said via email last week. And, she added, thankfully float building is not a totally linear process. The company has float chassis that are reused each year, and they were lucky to have one available for the DirecTV/El Segundo Little League float.
Much of the float construction will be completed at AES's facility in Azusa. Then, sometime in mid-December, the float will move to a location in Pasadena.
Hoff said she is coordinating a day for the team and parents to come decorate the float, as well as one for DirecTV employees.
To volunteer to decorate, go to aescreative.com/ volunteers.
For the city, its Little League team and DirecTV, it will be a fast-paced learning experience, Greer said, adding he never knew there were so many varieties of blue flowers available to depict the team's blue-and-yellow logo.
But one thing was clear — the element of surprise was worth it.
“I'm just happy to be able to get this all ready for them and have them just come and do it,” Greer said of giving back to the hometown heroes who entertained the community and put El Segundo on the map this summer.