*By Conor White*
As the Short-Season Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, it isn't often the Staten Island Yankees make headlines.
That may be why the namesake team announced it would temporarily change its public image, trading in the rich tradition of baseball's most successful team for the street cache of a newly famous New Yorker: Pizza Rat ー [the hungry rodent that just wanted a slice to itself.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU)
"It's an aggressive name, I think it's probably a little edgy, a little different," said Staten Island Yankees president Will Smith. "But I think everybody needs to remember that it's a promotion."
Still, the Staten Island Borough president James Oddo called the idea "dopey" in a statement.
The promotion will run for each of the Staten Island Yankees' five Saturday night home games this season, and fans in attendance will see a fully rebranded team, complete with uniforms. In an interview Thursday on Cheddar, Smith said the gear has been flying off the shelves.
"We've pretty much blown through all of our merchandise that we have," said Smith. "We're trying to place re-orders, I was actually trying to do that this morning, trying to order another thousand T-shirts, because we just didn't order enough, and you just don't know, but we're actually tracking way, way, way ahead of our entire online sales last year, and so far, so good."
The Pizza Rats name was first floated back in 2016, when it was the overwhelming favorite in an online poll to rename the team. Now, thanks to the promotion's immediate success, fans are wondering: Could the name change become permanent?
"Anything's possible," teased Smith. "I've always said until there's a new name, there's no new name."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/every-pizza-rat-has-its-day).
The Super Bowl is only a few days away, and the game is currently tracking to be the most expensive one ever.
Gametime, a website and app for last-minute tickets, says the average ticket price for the NFL's championship game is $9,502.50, with the most expensive seats costing nearly $38,000. That's a far cry away from the average ticket price of the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, which was only $12. The average ticket price increased by more than $8,000 in just the past decade. Matt Rados, Senior Operations Manager at Gametime, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Miller Lite is opening the first branded bar in the metaverse, by way of Decentraland, as a way to advertise during the Super Bowl this year without buying an expensive TV commercial slot. Sofia Colucci, global vice president of Miller Family of Brands, joined Cheddar to talk about the new marketing concept. "We have a lot of great partnerships with NFL teams throughout the year but were shut out of advertising during the Super Bowl game, so this pushes us to think creatively and also think of what feels really relevant right now," Colucci said. "There's no question that there's a lot of excitement with the metaverse, and we wanted to participate but in a way that felt right for Miller Lite."
David Tafuri, Former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor & Former State Department Official, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest geopolitical stories from Beijing, amid China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and yet another Russian doping scandal.
Americans placing bets on the Super Bowl is expected to reach a record high due to multiple states legalizing sports gambling. Hana Ostapchuk, the host of Cheddar Bets, joined Baker Machado on Between Bells to discuss the action on the Big Game.
trivago reported its last earnings of 2021 yesterday, marking the end of a rollercoaster year. The online hotel search site was forced to cut costs during the pandemic as the travel industry shut down entirely, instead pivoting its strategy to meet customer demand in other ways. Matthias Tillmann, CFO of trivago, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's results and why he's optimistic about the future of the travel industry in 2022.
The Winter Olympics showcase our favorite and most picturesque winter sports: from ski jumping, to figure skating, to ice hockey. But don't forget about doubles luge, the internet's favorite Olympic sport. Join us as we explore the history of this intimate display and reveal why doubles luge is so much more than a meme.
Youth sports coaching service MOJO has partnered with Major League Baseball, named the "trusted grassroots coaching app" of the MLB. The app provides content for parents and coaches to help young players grow their skills. Ben Sherwood, founder & CEO of MOJO joined Cheddar News to talk about how his app works to improve coaching to keep players interested. "The number one reason that kids drop out of sports and all of the surveys is that sports aren't fun, and one of the big reasons that sports aren't fun is that the coach doesn't know what she or he is doing," he said. "We think there's a great coach in everyone, and we just have to have the right resources and tools and inspiration."
The U.S. women's hockey team came up short in its highly anticipated game against the Canadian women, favorites for gold, in the preliminaries of the Winter Olympics tournament. The competition now enters the medal rounds where the U.S. team still has a shot.
After a seven-year hiatus, Nissan is returning to the Super Bowl action-packed, star-studded commercial. Allyson Witherspoon, Nissan's Chief Marketing Officer, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the concept of the ad campaign and how it gives clues into where the brand is heading next.
'Pixstory' is an integrity-based social media platform providing a space for healthy dialogue. It was designed to fight misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of toxicity. NBA champion and Pixstory brand ambassador, Dwight Howard, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
