San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Ohtani’s impact is economic, too
ANAHEIM — The group sprung to its feet as one. Shohei Ohtani had just hit a home run, and nearly 100 fans — most wearing Ohtani sweatshirts — rose in celebration. There were hugs and highfives. There was the obligatory documentation of the moment via cell phone photos.
The group had traveled from Japan to Anaheim, and they had come to Angel Stadium to see Ohtani play. In Japan, baseball games are full of joyful noise, and in particular full of song. Japanese fans do not sit quietly, especially not when their countryman is at bat.
“When I’m in the ondeck circle, I can hear all the Japanese cheering,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “They’re supporting me — and not only at home, but also on the road. That helps me and gives me confidence.”
In a year and a half in the major leagues, Ohtani has established himself as a triple threat — he’s a standout hitter, pitcher and driver of economic impact. The fans in the Ohtani group on this June night in Anaheim all work in the travel industry in Japan, eager to leverage Ohtani’s popularity back home into a greater share of the already significant business of travel from Japan to Southern California.
“People are coming here to see him,” said Daisuke Sato, who works for a Japanese travel agency. “They go to Disney, and they see Ohtani.”
Last season, Ohtani became the first majorleaguer to hit 15 home runs and pitch 50 innings in the same season since Babe Ruth in 1919.
Ohtani is not pitching this season while he recovers from elbow surgery. But he is batting, and spectacularly. Friday night against the A’s, Ohtani hit his 10th home run in his 45th game this season. He entered Saturday with a .301 average and 33 RBIs.
Kei Shibata, whose Tokyobased company publishes online travel guides, said he was eager to see where Ohtani plays so he could write authoritatively about it. He jokingly suggested what the name of a story on his website might be: “Top Things To Do in Anaheim Other Than Watching Ohtani.”
Last season as a rookie, Ohtani generated at least twice as much money for the Angels as they paid him in salary, and perhaps much more. His salary was the standard rookie wage of $545,000. (The Angels also paid him a signing bonus of $2.3 million and paid Ohtani’s Japanese team a release fee of $20 million. In return, they secured his contractual rights for at least six years.)
The Angels declined to say precisely how much revenue Ohtani generated for them. However, since they signed him, they’ve reached six sponsorship agreements with Japanese companies, according to Angels President John Carpino.
“We’ve had several sixfigure sponsorship deals,” Carpino said.
The Angels’ attendance also increased by 11% for each of the five home games in which Ohtani was the starting pitcher. If each additional fan paid the average ticket price of $30.26, as calculated by Team Marketing Report, the Angels’ ticket revenue would have increased by almost $600,000.
That figure does not account for incremental gains on the nights Ohtani batted rather than pitched, nor for the additional revenue from sales of food, drink, parking and merchandise. Major League Baseball reported that it sold more Ohtani jerseys than Mike Trout jerseys last season, even though the popular Trout is considered the best player in baseball and the face of the Angels.
The Angels were not the only Orange County business to benefit from Ohtani’s arrival.
At South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, a luxury mall that attracts about 22 million shoppers each year, more Japanese tour groups have visited since Ohtani joined the Angels, spokeswoman Debra Gunn Downing said. Tour operators featured Ohtani on their brochure covers, she said, and a Japanese television crew tracking Ohtani shot a segment there, targeted to fans back home.
“We have felt the Shohei Ohtani effect,” she said.
An estimated 157,000 tourists from Japan visited Anaheim during Ohtani’s rookie season, up about 4% from the previous two years, according to data provided by Visit Anaheim, which promotes tourism and conventions in the city and throughout Orange County.
The Angels find themselves at the fortunate front of a trend: International tourists increasingly want to experience a professional sporting event when visiting the United States, said Jeff Ajluni of the U.S. Travel Association.
U.S. leagues offer the highest level of competition in baseball, basketball and football. According to USTA data, 25% of travelers visiting the U.S. last year were interested in attending an MLB, NBA or NFL game. The breakdown for MLB: 21% of Japanese tourists — and 11% of all international travelers — were interested in catching a game.
The USTA held its annual exhibition this month in Anaheim, with more than 6,000 travel industry buyers from 70 countries on hand.
Amid the displays for theme parks, historical sites and other destinations, Ajluni said, representatives from more than a dozen pro sports teams, including the Giants, pitched their games as tourist attractions.
The Angels, at least for now, have declined to take the guaranteed revenue that would have come with an exclusive deal with a Japanese travel agency. Instead, and sometimes with an assist from the MLB office in Japan, the Angels put together customized Ohtani tour packages that can include game tickets, merchandise and stadium tours. “We always have someone here that can speak Japanese,” Carpino said.
Ohtani has lived in Southern California for more than a year. So, if Japanese fans come for a week to watch him play, what else would he recommend they do beyond attend baseball games?
He laughed at the question. “I wish someone could tell me how to spend an off day,” Ohtani said with a smile.