This Baseball Team Is Giving Away a Funeral Package to One Lucky Fan

You, tired: Bobblehead day is the best giveaway in baseball!

Minor-league team, wired: Hold our casket.

A "funeral and estate-planning package" is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of wacky ballpark promotions, but, since literally every person on Earth is going to die at some point (shocking, I know), good luck trying to find a prize more practical.

That's exactly what Victoria HarbourCats managing partner Jim Swanson is going for when the Vancouver Island-based West Coast League squad hosts the Corvallis Knights on Wednesday, where one lucky (?) fan will take home a brand-new, shiny funeral and will-planning package worth several thousand dollars.

"The time's going to come for all of us, right?" Jim Swanson, managing partner with the team, told VICE Sports.

It may seem a little dark and grim at first glance, but the value of the services up for grabs is nothing to sneeze at. The prize includes a cremation service, cremation casket, and one original death certificate worth around $2,500. The winner will also receive a will, power of attorney, and advanced directive for health care from a local law firm, along with a complimentary insurance and financial planning consultation. The total retail value comes in at around $5,000.

It's worth quite a bit of coin, which obviously appeals to everybody, but the demographics that comprise this city in particular make this an even more appropriate and appealing giveaway to many in the area.

"Victoria is very much a retirement city—a place some people call the "San Diego of Canada," because we don't have any snow and it's a gorgeous place to live in period, but certainly to live out the twilight years," he added.

Playing to the market is obviously key, but for Swanson, whose uncle tragically drowned a year-and-a-half ago, this promotion is something he feels can help families avoid going through some of the same trials and hardships his did during that tragic time.

"His affairs weren't in order and his will wasn't in place. He had a bit of a funeral plan in place, but it left a lot of work and a very difficult situation. I had been thinking about doing it (the funeral giveaway) for a couple of years with the HarbourCats, and when that happened it sort of reminded me what my brother and mostly my mom and myself went through in taking care of those arrangements," Swanson explained.

He said he doesn't always fill seats with many different promotions, but because of the value and particular importance of this kind of package, he has no doubt it will attract fans after several have told him personally that they will be there because it's like a lottery ticket: If you don't buy your ticket, you can't win. He added that one of the team's season-ticket holders who has cancer made it known how important of a promotion this is.

A little more useful than a foam finger, straw hat or giant-headed toy, isn't it?