Uni Ads coming to MLB within 3 years

[JerseyMike34]

“Who the hell cares about a small patch on the jersey? Get over it.”

***2 decades later***

“Who the hell cares about the entire jersey, playing surface, team names, and trophies (among other things) having corporate branding? Get over it. I’m still cheering for my Rogers™ Edmonton Oilers powered by Rexall® to take the MasterCard™ Stanley Starbucks™ Cup!”

Ad creep folks. Think long term.

I'm with KevFu here, he's making a lot of really solid points that people don't understand or like.

If you don't think it's coming, you're wrong. It's all about money. And that won't stop. Ever.

You've got people cutting the cord, so sports on TV isn't fire proof as it once was. Just wait until all these new TV deals pop up, 2 things are going to happen, they will be lower then the leagues expect, or they will be so much more over the top because these stations feel that sports is PVR proof TV. Once everyone realizes that sports isn't as "scheduled viewing" as the stations think they are, the price will drop.

Netflix will eventually get commercials. Ads will be on the jerseys. Youtube will get sports rights and plaster shit everywhere....

It's corporate America. The business model is flawed. You have to hit your projections or else the company value drops and then everyone is trouble.
It's keep building until you can't, and when you can't cut costs to keep building.

This whole thing is just a drop in the advertising bucket. Ads will be on jerseys. 100%

 

[Ghost Bear]

 

[cutchemist42]

“Who the hell cares about a small patch on the jersey? Get over it.”

***2 decades later***

“Who the hell cares about the entire jersey, playing surface, team names, and trophies (among other things) having corporate branding? Get over it. I’m still cheering for my Rogers™ Edmonton Oilers powered by Rexall® to take the MasterCard™ Stanley Starbucks™ Cup!”

Ad creep folks. Think long term.

Yep

 

[SCBlueLiner]

**** these guys I hope the fans don’t take it at easily as NBA fans did. They are just selling out themselves to, so shortsighted. Sports clubs ARE a brand in themselves that took a long time to build up. you see tonnes of junk stamped with maple leafs and canadiens logos , everything from crock pots to home insurance plans, and when you dillute your own brand by stamping someone else’s all over it for cash money you are weakening it.

Would you ever see Coca Cola put an Expedia logo on their vending machine fronts in exchange for money? Of course no legit ceo would so it’s kind of telling how dumb sports executives are to be the ones thinking like this when so much of their value is tied up their own brands’ prestige and goodwill, real vulgar money grubbing and should cause fans to rethink their emotional investment in these teams when they are thought so little of by the owners and management of them.

Preach! The is the best rebuttal I have heard yet and one that should ring in the ears of the executives of a professional sports franchise. You are diluting your own brand by slapping another brand's logo on your uniform.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Meh...it'll be a big deal for the first season then nobody would notice/care.

 

[tarheelhockey]

**** these guys I hope the fans don’t take it at easily as NBA fans did. They are just selling out themselves to, so shortsighted. Sports clubs ARE a brand in themselves that took a long time to build up. you see tonnes of junk stamped with maple leafs and canadiens logos , everything from crock pots to home insurance plans, and when you dillute your own brand by stamping someone else’s all over it for cash money you are weakening it.

Would you ever see Coca Cola put an Expedia logo on their vending machine fronts in exchange for money? Of course no legit ceo would so it’s kind of telling how dumb sports executives are to be the ones thinking like this when so much of their value is tied up their own brands’ prestige and goodwill, real vulgar money grubbing and should cause fans to rethink their emotional investment in these teams when they are thought so little of by the owners and management of them.

This is all extremely true, but if the history of sports has taught us anything, it's that a lot of the ownership are incredibly, head-slappingly shortsighted.

 

[CTHabsfan]

I'm with KevFu here, he's making a lot of really solid points that people don't understand or like.

If you don't think it's coming, you're wrong. It's all about money. And that won't stop. Ever.
This whole thing is just a drop in the advertising bucket. Ads will be on jerseys. 100%

The two of you are right stating it's all about money. If people are willing to accept advertising (which is of no benefit to them), then advertising will appear on jerseys. If people refuse to spend money on merchandise if advertising appears, the situation could be avoided.

 

[CTHabsfan]

Meh...it'll be a big deal for the first season then nobody would notice/care.

People might notice/care when 'Fly Emirates' has a more prominent spot on jersey than the team logo.

 

[Jozay]

Do nba jerseys get sold with the sponsor? Like the raptors have sun life so is that on the jerseys too?

No.

 

[Jozay]

I dont have a problem with it. I thought I would, but in the NBA you can barely notice them. If the NHL goes that way, I wouldnt have a problem. As long as they dont take it too far and clutter the jerseys with ads, im fine with it.

 

[CTHabsfan]

I dont have a problem with it. I thought I would, but in the NBA you can barely notice them. If the NHL goes that way, I wouldnt have a problem. As long as they dont take it too far and clutter the jerseys with ads, im fine with it.

Think the ads will stay barely noticeable? First it's a small ad, then it gets bigger, then there are more, then you end up looking like a NASCAR driver.

 

[KevFu]

The two of you are right stating it's all about money. If people are willing to accept advertising (which is of no benefit to them), then advertising will appear on jerseys. If people refuse to spend money on merchandise if advertising appears, the situation could be avoided.

Nah, we're powerless to stop it.

The average NBA jersey ad deal is $9.3 million dollars per year. The idea that fans could cost their team over $10 million in revenue from jerseys is pretty crazy. The team/league gets only 11 to 15 percent of jersey sales. The rest goes to the manufacture. Of that 11 to 15 percent, some of THAT goes to the player/union.

The jersey ad is worth about the same as 500,000 or more jersey sales. Do you think teams are selling half a million jerseys a season? Probably not. It’s probably 200,000 tops. But if anyone has any data on the number, I'd love to see it.


That's why I'm so "meh, whatever." The idea that a team is going to turn down one multi-million dollar sale because I think an ad-less jersey is prettier is crazy.

Plus, they could probably max their revenue by selling an ad-less jersey for $50 MORE than the one with the ad!

 

[jj cale]

I'm done with the game if it ever goes this far.

 

[DowntownBooster]

I'm done with the game if it ever goes this far.

Ditto.

 

[Deleted member 93465]

It will be as inevitable as fans losing interest once they start seeing ads everywhere.

Just as interest in soccer has gone down in the past 50 years since it introduced ads on jerseys. Oh wait...

What's interesting to me is that advertising on jerseys was a thing in European sports for over 40 years before anyone thought to implement it in American sports. Why is that? People act like it's the most obvious thing in the world, so why wasn't it introduced in the 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s? In fact, if it's so obvious why wasn't it introduced several decades earlier in European professional sports and why didn't the Americans get the idea before the Europeans? Usually, Americans are ahead of the Europeans when it comes to making a buck.

It is no surprise to me that ads on jerseys have crept into American sports on the back of globalization and the rising visibility of soccer in America.

When you realize that Real Madrid make $140 million a year from their shirt sponsor, you quickly understand why American leagues are taking notice. That kind of potential adds a whole lot to your bottom line.

NHL is the only major sport with Ads on the playing surface. In comparison, ads on unis isn't a big deal, IMO.

Hopefully it will be one small logo in a corner somewhere, similar to the NBA.

Agree with this. But as a soccer fan, it’s interesting to see people react negatively to jersey ads while being ok with field/court/ice ads. Im the opposite. Jersey ads are so ingrained but Id have a hard time coming to grips with ads on the playing surface.

People might notice/care when 'Fly Emirates' has a more prominent spot on jersey than the team logo.

Again, they’d be annoyed about it because it’s something new and going against tradition. But a decade or two later, as in soccer, it’d become so ingrained and commonplace that people wouldnt care. So yeah, there’d be teething problems, but the idea that people would stop watching as a result is debunked by the experience in soccer and world sport in general, whose popularity didnt suffer one iota since ushering in ads on jerseys.

 

[IU Hawks fan]