The spirit of Brooklyn baseball is alive and well, with fans eager to support their local ball club—and especially eager for a shot at cheap seats and free Barack Obama bobbleheads.
The Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team sold out discounted tickets during its one-day “economic stimulus plan” for a special June event, when the team will morph into the “Baracklyn” Cyclones and give away Obama bobbleheads.
The Cyclones sold 2,500 tickets for the June 23 game, rolling back to prices from its 2001 inaugural season – $10 for field box seats, $8 for box seats and $5 for the bleachers – within three hours on Inauguration Day. Those tickets excluded season tickets and group tickets reserved for the game.
The Cyclones, the New York Mets’ affiliate in the New York-Penn League, will become the Baracklyn Cyclones in special stars-and-stripes jerseys for the game against the Hudson Valley Renegades. And the first 2,500 fans through the turnstiles at KeySpan Park in Coney Island will receive bobbleheads of President Obama wearing that Cyclones jersey.
During the election campaign Cyclones’ General Manager Steve Cohen joked about changing the New York City borough’s name to “Baracklyn” if Obama won, according to Cyclones spokesman Dave Campanero. What started as an inside joke soon became the concept for a political parody promotional night.
“We thought it would really be a fun night, regardless of one’s political persuasion,” Campanero said. “As we fleshed it out, we thought people would be responsive.”
But Campanero said the team never expected the barrage of phone calls from fans who grabbed all available tickets for the game on Tuesday morning.
“I thought people would get behind it. But we didn’t anticipate that scale of response,” he said.
The economic stimulus ploy is the primary promotional parody, but there are other elements. The Cyclones’ will offer its own universal health care at the Baracklyn game, giving away Band-Aids to the first 1,000 fans arriving at the ballpark. Any plumber named Joe attending the game gets two free tickets: one for him or herself and another to “spread the wealth.”
Anyone named Barack also gets in for free (a naming rights perk) and anyone named McCain or Palin gets a free seat in the bleachers as a bipartisan consolation prize.
Finally, for a “clear-cut exit strategy,” fans leaving the game will receive American flags and discount coupons for future Cyclones games.
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