STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – At All American Screenprinting in Sterling Heights the past 22 hours have been busy.
The company started making and shipping 6,000 Major League Baseball-approved T-shirts about 8 p.m. Thursday night after the Detroit Tigers secured a trip back to the World Series. The T-shirts can be found at Metro Detroit Kroger stores.
As All American workers cleaned up the silk-screen boards and packed up boxes for regional shipments across Michigan and into Ohio, Daniella Hocking said the World Series is big stuff for a small company.
"It's pretty big, yeah. It's pretty big. I mean, how often do you get to print Tigers championship T-shirts?" she said.
It's also an unexpected and very happily-received bonus for Metro Detroit. The World Series is expected to bring big money. The estimated take for just Game 1 alone is $12.3 million. Three games are expected to bring just less than $40 million, said Eric Smallwood, of Front Row Analytics.
The money includes tickets, food and beverages inside and outside Comerica Park, merchandise, travel, and hotels for out-of-town guests. It's a special event for the area when compared to championship games for the Detroit Red Wings, which might not happen this year. Those games bring in an estimated more than $6 million each game. A Detroit Lions NFC Championship game would net the area $13.5 million.
"I'm just extremely grateful, and go Tigers!" said Hocking.
All American is bracing for the best because they have gotten the call from their MLB licensee. They are negotiating a deal to print the World Series championship T-shirts.