Scotts Miracle-Gro: A Major League Ballpark In Your Backyard

The lucrative business of leveraging sports brands just got a little greener.

Yesterday, Scotts Miracle-Gro announced it signed a multi-year agreement to be designated the "Official Lawn Care Company of Major League Baseball."

The deal includes selling "Grounds Keepers Select" grass seed mix that's specially blended to replicate the grass playing fields in several ballparks. Boston's Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play, and Chicago's Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play, are two of the blends that will be sold when the 2010 baseball season begins. So far, Scotts has arrangements with five ballparks.

"It's a powerful feeling when you walk through the concourse and see that emerald green field in front of you," says Scotts brand manager John Price. "There are certain icons that are inseparable from baseball," adds Tim Brosnan, executive vice president of business at MLB (Major League Baseball). "The field of play is one of them."

The Scotts deal may usurp another smaller MLB licensee. Last March, DeLea Sod Farms of New Jersey was licensed to sell "Yankees Sod," which appeared at the start of the 2009 season in New York City-area Home Depot stores. Yankees Grass Seed was also available at that time.

Okay, so homeowners who are baseball fans can now have lawns created from the same grass seed as their favorite ballparks. But someone better figure out how to keep those lawns watered and mowed so they look just as nice as the real thing.