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Pitches not limited to plays on the field

Homes, phones vie for attention on Opening Day

James Paton, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 3, 2007 at midnight

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The Opening Day competition wasn't confined to Coors Field.

Energy-drink companies, car makers, brewers, cell-phone providers, home builders and radio stations turned the streets surrounding the ballpark into a commercial battleground.

"Guerrilla marketing at its finest," said Jeff Revious, vice president of Denver-based Go Fast Sports & Beverage.

Revious and his colleagues, operating in a parking lot beside a monstrous black truck with the company's logo, flipped cans of their energy drink to passersby. They gave away about 60 cases of the product featuring "Australian honey" in the hours before the game on Monday.

Several feet away, Chris Sublette of Ryan Homes passed out fliers promoting a new housing development he's poised to open near the stadium.

Erik Peterson went to see the Colorado Rockies take on the Arizona Diamondbacks dressed in a curly wig, sunglasses and white jumpsuit advertising his brewpub, the Bull & Bush.

"It's overwhelming," Peterson said, looking out at the marketing assault before heading through the turnstiles. "But nobody does jumpsuits."

KYGO, KHOW, Mix 100.3, KOOL 105 and other radio stations plastered the neighborhood with signs, some of them blasting music louder than the jets that fired up the crowd by flying over Coors Field.

Promoters of "the Wolf" 92.5 rolled through LoDo in an old Cadillac convertible, tossing candy to fans.

Dodge gave away a shiny new SUV parked in front of the Cowboy Lounge.

FSN Rocky Mountain, the sports television network that carries Rockies games, touted its high-definition broadcasts.

Jessica Wicks grabbed a microphone and tried to lure pedestrians to a Verizon Wireless truck by offering free phone calls and a chance to win ski-lift tickets.

"We're here like everyone else," she said. "We're just louder."

Sublette didn't want to miss a chance to market his company in front of tens of thousands of fans streaming into the stadium.

But he acknowledged that it's possible the message would get lost amid the dizzying display of brand names.

The masses seemed more focused on their next beer or on landing a ticket from a scalper at a reasonable price.

"People are taking them," Sublette said, referring to his fliers.

"But you don't know if it works."

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