Albert Pujols: Super Brand

Come on. Really Albert? You are asking for thirty million dollars a year for ten years. Thirty million dollars every year. For a decade. Are you insane? Today, you reached your announced deadline for the negotiations with the Cardinals, your team, surrounding your contract extension, and of course, they did not agree to your ludicrous demands. Do you know the talent they could acquire for your proposed three hundred MILLION dollar contract? Until now I have, with a few exceptions, accepted the ridiculous salaries in baseball. You, however have crossed the line. Do you really think you are a 300 million dollar baseball player?

The simple answer to the question above: no. No baseball player, even one who bats .330 with forty home runs and 120 RBI's per year like Albert, is worth paying thirty million dollars per year to hit the ball and run around the bases. Albert Pujols the player is not worth anywhere near what the Cardinals pay him. Albert Pujols the brand is. Specifically, his brand name is worth that money to the Cardinals baseball organization. Over the past ten years, Pujols has become the face of the St. Louis franchise. He has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, has starred in many advertisements for his endorsers (Nike, ESPN, Wheaties, etc.) Here is one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m5-M2YE3os. With this commercial, not only does Albert Pujols generate a huge amount of publicity for himself, he also promotes the team whose logo appears on his chest. To be honest, I watch the Cardinals because they have Albert Pujols. Sales of his jersey alone must generate literally millions of dollars a year for the Cardinals organization. I would say his presence alone causes more people worldwide to watch Cardinals baseball than any other part of the Cardinals team. As a baseball fan, I expect to see Albert in a Cardinals uniform. He would look totally out of place in a Cardinals uniform, and the Cardinals would look totally out of place without him in their uniform. This symbiosis means that, while any team would pay millions of dollars to have Pujols the player and the brand, the Cardinals have an extra incentive. He is a great player. I am by no means dissing the abilities of perhaps the greatest hitter since Ted Williams. However, the 300 million dollar contract he requests could easily pay for equal or greater talent. However, the Cardinals certainly cannot replace Pujols's identity as an icon and a brand, a brand that will  (in my opinion) soon guarantee that it is cobranded with the Cardinals for the next decade at a price of 300 million dollars.