Silver confirms ads on NBA jerseys are coming

[rams80]

It would be a decade minimum before you'd even have to consider worrying about that, if even at all. It's silly to stress about it now.

NBA teams have something that WNBA teams dont - brand equity. They know this, and aren't going to throw it away. They have every incentive in the world to keep the team's logos and other marks strongly represented on the court.

I'd say that depends on the team. I'm sure that teams like the Lakers, Bulls, Celtics, etc will largely strive to keep their looks intact. But lesser teams like Milwaukee I can see trying to get a little extra by allowing their sponsors to have a little more room to work with. Think about the Raptors too, now that Drake's involved...with this news now out, Drake would have to be crazy to not see this as a glorious opportunity for cross-promotion. Using his owl logo and colors for the Raptors (ditching the dinosaur identity) makes way too much sense now, and if the NBA allows it or something similar, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't happen.

I do hope NBA teams are wise about which teams they choose as sponsors in regards to colors. For example, the red Target logo would look horrible on the Timberwolves' jersey. It'd stand out for all the wrong reasons.

Do the Raptors really want to play up their association with Drake that much though?

I thought nobody liked Drake.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

This guy is going to make David Stern look like Mahatma Ghandi.

[robbman21]

Player's opinions will also weigh in on this. Just as BBTV brought up fans willingness - or maybe rather UNwillingness - to support anything that's corporatized by buying jerseys, watching games, etc, if the players make a major gripe about, then sponsorships could be relegated to warm-ups, headbands, wristbands, on the court itself, etc. A great example is the "ball of the future" that Stern introduced back in '05. It lasted a month, maybe? This was in the day and age just before social media, so imagine now if there was a similar backlash how seemingly far it could spread. Granted I do realize changing a piece of equipment - THE major piece of equipment in the game - that guys have grown up using their whole lives is a little different that sponsorship patches going on uniforms, but the same principles could remain: If the players and fans hate it enough, it goes away, regardless of what Silver wants. I fully expect this sleeved jersey experiment to fade away soon as well, considering how many marquee players openly despise them.

On the subject of store-bought jerseys featuring these sponsors, part of me thinks they could have feature them, and part of me feels that they will still remain blank even after the on-court unis see ads. Part of that reason being similar to the player movement issues that some people have about buying jerseys now, only what if sponsors change from year to year? How dated would you look if you're wearing a still-current Pelicans jersey with an Entergy patch under the back of the collar when they've been sporting an Abita patch for the past two seasons?? Then that could also open up the door for jersey owners scouring Ebay for the patches to add to the jerseys the way they do now for authentic MLB jerseys.

Personally I hate the idea but it is what it is...different times we are a livin' in.

[BBTV]

Yes, the names mean something and have history locally, but do they have value? What will bring in more dollars? Again, I'd say that it would vary from team to team. Some teams have established brands that resonate strongly in their markets (Lakers). Others have struggling brands that get largely a "meh" response in their markets (Bucks). Still others are just trend-followers who will chase whatever potential moneymaking trend out there (Heat).

But, this all depends on what the NBA's policy on ads will be. If they designate a certain space for ads and strongly enforce that rule, then most of our concerns are for naught. If they decide to follow the soccer/football/WNBA model or loosely enforce ad guidelines, then the question of "value" becomes valid, as teams and the NBA will have to decide for themselves what will bring in the most money.

That's a good point. It could go that way, so you'd have Team Target (with a small Timberwolves logo buried somewhere) vs the Lakers (with a small McDonalds logo buried somewhere.)

The question becomes in how they assess the value. Does the gain in revenue from Target outweigh the loss (if any) of local support since the team isn't really marketed (or at least visually represented) as the "Minnesota Timberwolves" anymore? If the answer is yes, then that would imply that the brand is so worthless that it serves no purpose other than to exist as a billboard to be displayed live at a Lakers or Celtics game (and really no purpose when they play Team Northwestern Mutual.)

The easy thing to do is to seek out all the Wolves and Bucks of the world and put them places where the communities would rally around the brand and support them well enough - but I think as has been proven in the NHL threads, these leagues seem to think that 30 or 32 teams is a good number, but there aren't really 30 or 32 markets capable of really supporting major league sports in the USA - at least not based on the current revenue models. That being the case, maybe you're way is really the only way to salvage the situation.

*DISCLAIMER* I just picked the Wolves because Target had been mentioned elsewhere in the discussion. I know nothing about their current situation or how well they're supported. They may have sold out 5,000 straight games for all I know. Just picked them for an easy example, so don't yell at me if you're one of the billions of loyal Wolves fans that's packing their stadium every night.

[guest23]

Yes, the names mean something and have history locally, but do they have value? What will bring in more dollars? Again, I'd say that it would vary from team to team. Some teams have established brands that resonate strongly in their markets (Lakers). Others have struggling brands that get largely a "meh" response in their markets (Bucks). Still others are just trend-followers who will chase whatever potential moneymaking trend out there (Heat).

But, this all depends on what the NBA's policy on ads will be. If they designate a certain space for ads and strongly enforce that rule, then most of our concerns are for naught. If they decide to follow the soccer/football/WNBA model or loosely enforce ad guidelines, then the question of "value" becomes valid, as teams and the NBA will have to decide for themselves what will bring in the most money.

That's a good point. It could go that way, so you'd have Team Target (with a small Timberwolves logo buried somewhere) vs the Lakers (with a small McDonalds logo buried somewhere.)

The question becomes in how they assess the value. Does the gain in revenue from Target outweigh the loss (if any) of local support since the team isn't really marketed (or at least visually represented) as the "Minnesota Timberwolves" anymore? If the answer is yes, then that would imply that the brand is so worthless that it serves no purpose other than to exist as a billboard to be displayed live at a Lakers or Celtics game (and really no purpose when they play Team Northwestern Mutual.)

The easy thing to do is to seek out all the Wolves and Bucks of the world and put them places where the communities would rally around the brand and support them well enough - but I think as has been proven in the NHL threads, these leagues seem to think that 30 or 32 teams is a good number, but there aren't really 30 or 32 markets capable of really supporting major league sports in the USA - at least not based on the current revenue models. That being the case, maybe you're way is really the only way to salvage the situation.

*DISCLAIMER* I just picked the Wolves because Target had been mentioned elsewhere in the discussion. I know nothing about their current situation or how well they're supported. They may have sold out 5,000 straight games for all I know. Just picked them for an easy example, so don't yell at me if you're one of the billions of loyal Wolves fans that's packing their stadium every night.

that's the biggest problem with the association...by not having hard salary caps and franchise owned local TV deals you have major economic disparity between the elite franchises and the mid to small market teams...the top tier teams don't need to scrape for revenue like some do...ads are just the beginning of the non traditional revenue/sponsorship game and silver is merely acting on behalf of those owners who are demanding revenue that they feel entitled to.after overpaying for their franchises.

[ncs53]

I love that Americans freak out about ads on jerseys. Do you realize nobody else on the planet has commercial breaks during there sporting events? I would much rather have an add on a jersey than to have the game stop every 5 minutes because Toyota is trying to sell me something I'm never going to buy.

[PhlyBoy]

I love that Americans freak out about ads on jerseys. Do you realize nobody else on the planet has commercial breaks during there sporting events? I would much rather have an add on a jersey than to have the game stop every 5 minutes because Toyota is trying to sell me something I'm never going to buy.

That's partially because with quarter breaks and time outs or inning breaks it's a perfect use of the time that would otherwise just be use watching the players do nothing.

[alyssabelle]

Ads on jerseys makes me thinks of little league. I don't like it. I don't mind it within the arena but on jerseys it looks terrible to me.

[colortv]

I love that Americans freak out about ads on jerseys. Do you realize nobody else on the planet has commercial breaks during there sporting events? I would much rather have an add on a jersey than to have the game stop every 5 minutes because Toyota is trying to sell me something I'm never going to buy.

It's not like they are going to stop commercials if this happens...so it's not a win situation anyway you look at it.

[colortv]

Do you guys think that ads that are on game-worn jerseys will make its way onto authentics?

No doubt. Even on replicas etc.

Half the exposure they get will be the jerseys bought and worn by fans. There are currently approximately 1 billion LeBron James jerseys. Imagine how lucrative it would be to have your company's logo on there.

1 billion? Hard to believe.

[Shadojoker]

I agree with alyssabelle.. Ads on jerseys seems "unprofessional" to me and mainly look bush/minor league. These teams or corporations ALREADY make millions of dollars. They just want more! Difference from Usa vs soccer world is the world isn't on the same commercialization as America thus you have ads on everything.

We have commercials, ads on backboards, scoreboards, everything PLUS commercials. Sure the world has the same but not nearly as the same level. All I see is greed. I could see why the Wnba needs it because they arent as thriving as the NBA NFL MLB etc.

This will be the start. Soon the basketball and evem the referees will have ads on them!

[Lights Out]

I love that Americans freak out about ads on jerseys. Do you realize nobody else on the planet has commercial breaks during there sporting events?

You say that as if it's a one-or-the-other choice and not a certainty that we'd get both jersey ads and commercial breaks.

[Wilt]

1. Talking about TV breaks and jersey ads is mixing apple and pears especially because different parties profit from it. At least in Europe the clubs profit from putting sponsor logos on their equipment and the half-time commercials are up to broadcasters. And still there was a TV channels in Italy (I don't know if this is still true) that was squizing ads during football games and in Germany F1 Grand Prixes are constantly interrupted as well.

2. I also don't buy the argument that you have to use the time-outs to show commercials instead of what is going on in the arena. Don't forget that the breaks got extended and TV time-outs were introduced to increase the load of commercials.

3. Even in European football you can make the jersey ads more tasteful by resticting their number to only one on the chest (CL, EPL). In France, on the other hand, too many teams went overboard with them.

4. On the Lakers/T-Wolves discussion. It remainds me of FC Barcelona that was one of the longest resisting clubs in the world but in the end they had to give in. You just can't ignore so much money.

5. I also can't imagine players massively opposing this idea. They split the profit with league 50/50 so that would give them extra cash as well.

[Avalancho]

5. I also can't imagine players massively opposing this idea. They split the profit with league 50/50 so that would give them extra cash as well.

Players would play in clown suits and Goofy shoes if it meant more money for them... It's their job, who could blame them for trying to earn a little more?

To me, NBA players' complaints regarding sleeved jerseys have more to do with the fact they're not benefiting from them (people aren't buying them) than the discomfort they might feel by using them instead of the regular sleeveless...

[Old School Fool]

As long as they don't do what the WNBA did.

I have no idea what team Skylar Diggins is playing for in this picture. Is the Osage Casino Boost Mobile's? There's no real indicator of what the team is and no alternate logo patch going to help that. Imagine a new viewer tunes in and sees this, what the hell is this? If it wasn't for the on screen graphics, they would have no clue.

[elsephen]

Makes little sense.

Soccer does it because they have very few commercial interruptions. The NBA has plenty.

[Kevin W.]

As long as they don't do what the WNBA did.

They will eventually. The greed of the highest-salaried league knows no boundaries.

[Wilt]

Makes little sense.

Soccer does it because they have very few commercial interruptions. The NBA has plenty.

I don't think it's true anymore. The sport competitions became a huge business in the last 20 years and I guess you can compare to Hollywood nowadays. That means that there is growing number of parties trying to carve a piece of the cake. You can't just tell one group off because someone else had a bigger piece. There will be just increasing pressure to bake a larger cake.

[Lee Noire]

As long as they don't do what the WNBA did.

They will eventually. The greed of the highest-salaried league knows no boundaries.

This isn't a personal attack on you but merely something I'm genuinely confused about. Why is it most people here are bashing the NBA for trying to make all the cash they can? I can't imagine if any one of us were in a management position with any team and not being ok with making more revenue. Hell, in any sales driven business venture I imagine the goal would be to provide a quality product for a fair but competitive price and make lots of cash doing it.

Now from an aesthetic perspective, I get it. This is a logo/design forum so having a corporate patch on a uniform matters here. It's just plain ugly and I fully get the disdain, in relation to those of us that are here. I don't necessarily think that really matters to people that aren't as invested in sports aesthetics. If a casual Laker fan can still identify his/her team as the Lakers and have a decent experience at games, I don't think they will care if Farmers is tramp stamped on Kobe's back.

As much as it pains me to say this, I don't believe sports(excluding the NFL) is catering to the die hards or the CCSLC-ers of the world. It's the casual fan that makes the family trip to the arena on a wednesday, like they would if it was a trip to Disneyland or something. Its an entertainment destination, more so than ever. As long as those consumers can get tickets for a reasonable price(reasonable in pro sports kind of way), buy a jersey that still looks like it belongs their team, and still get a quality product(pending the team they root for) this ad space thing won't even make a dent.

[OnWis97]

As long as they don't do what the WNBA did.

They will eventually. The greed of the highest-salaried league knows no boundaries.

This isn't a personal attack on you but merely something I'm genuinely confused about. Why is it most people here are bashing the NBA for trying to make all the cash they can? I can't imagine if any one of us were in a management position with any team and not being ok with making more revenue. Hell, in any sales driven business venture I imagine the goal would be to provide a quality product for a fair but competitive price and make lots of cash doing it.

Now from an aesthetic perspective, I get it. This is a logo/design forum so having a corporate patch on a uniform matters here. It's just plain ugly and I fully get the disdain, in relation to those of us that are here. I don't necessarily think that really matters to people that aren't as invested in sports aesthetics. If a casual Laker fan can still identify his/her team as the Lakers and have a decent experience at games, I don't think they will care if Farmers is tramp stamped on Kobe's back.

As much as it pains me to say this, I don't believe sports(excluding the NFL) is catering to the die hards or the CCSLC-ers of the world. It's the casual fan that makes the family trip to the arena on a wednesday, like they would if it was a trip to Disneyland or something. Its an entertainment destination, more so than ever. As long as those consumers can get tickets for a reasonable price(reasonable in pro sports kind of way), buy a jersey that still looks like it belongs their team, and still get a quality product(pending the team they root for) this ad space thing won't even make a dent.

It pains me to say this, but most of what you say is correct.

Look at the responses on this thread. This is a message board dedicated to logos/uniforms/design thereof. And I'd say at least a third are for this--well at least not against it (as long as team wordmarks remain). Most "regular" fans don't really care about uniforms. My guess is that a logo patch of CFL size will be met with indifference.

I hate this with a passion, but the NBA should probably just do it. There will be some negative response. There are people that are not uniform geeks that will appreciate how we don't have ads in North America the minute they see the ads. But most of us will get over it. And I say thsi as someone who probably will not get over it.

I bolded an interesting part of your post though. Why do you believe that the NFL is excluded from leagues not catering to die-hards/CCSLCers? If anything, i think the NFL does the best at capturing casual fans. So if you are saying that the NFL does best at "catering to CCSLC" because it has the most stringent uniform requirements, that's an interesting point. Maybe the NFL just "gets" branding and maybe they'd rather not put ads on the uniforms. To your early question about what we'd do in a management position, one thing I would do is say, "is a few million dollars of this revenue worth watering our brand down?" Sometimes I wonder that.