NBA owners approved uniform advertising

[Uncle Drew]

Happened yesterday. Per Zach Lowe. ****'s sake.

[rezznor]

can't wait

[tomtucker]

Former NBA boss David Stern made sure the nba was clean and good looking, he had the jersey manufacturer

[Foster5k]

These fools going to be looking like Nascars.

[qrich]

Depends on the extent of the logos.


I'm just waiting for all jersey's to have sleeves to make room for more ads tho!

[CP3PO]

It ultimately doesn't change the game, but I'm going to miss the aesthetics of a clean jersey.

[TemporaMutantur]

I don't mind if it's incorporated nicely and it's a single company. But if it's some Nascar shit, **** that.

[Overdrive]

Another opportunity for McDonald's and Coke to link themselves with sports..

[HylianNightmare]

It's just jerseys,who cares

[FKAri]

Not going to be long before Middle Eastern airlines take over NBA's jerseys

[Kungfro]

Another opportunity for McDonald's and Coke to link themselves with sports..

[tomtucker]

Not going to be long before Middle Eastern airlines take over NBA's jerseys

Hope that idea bombs

[tomSR.]

I say this as someone who makes a living in the advertising industry - unless you own an NBA franchise or you own another professional sports franchise that is inevitably going to adopt uniforms ads how can you support this? Major league teams have so many revenue streams that jersey ads are one they can afford to do without in order to maintain the appearance of professionalism, respectability, and overall just an aesthetically clean look. What's the connection between all of those pictures above? They're minor leagues. The established aesthetic is ads = bush. I'd rather that not enter the big 4 North American sports although I've know it was coming. It's cheap and tasteless.


- "It's a free market economy and teams should try to earn as much as possible"
Yes and I'm all for the free-market economy which is why I hope this move dips their jersey sales to the point where ads aren't profitable. I very much doubt this will happen because 90% of people don't care like we do, but that's what I'm hoping for.

To expand on this though: I outfitted Key Arena, Centurylink Field, Husky Stadium and the Moda Center in Portland and I worked for the agency that helped name the Golden1 Center in Sacramento. Places where there are ads in a sports venue: playing surface, walls, naming rights, programs, souvenir cups, give-away promotions, LED bands, permanent scoreboard fixtures, permanent signage, sponsoring in-game events like the thing where a kid has to throw a ball through a thing, literally playing commercials on the jumbotron, sponsoring the kiss-cam, sponsoring the half time interview, sponsoring the half-time show, sponsoring the pad the mascot lands on when he does his dunk stunt, sponsoring the chairs the players sit on, sponsoring the different levels in the arena, etc. It goes on and on.

As a person in advertising I am just fine with those revenue streams feeding me and my family thank you. To say the teams need another source of revenue through advertising is absurd. If you think this additional source of revenue will benefit the fans in the form of lower ticket prices you are a giant naive idiot. If you think jersey ads will result in fewer ads elsewhere you are a giant naive idiot. It's for the guys who own the teams and the mega corporations and that's it. The rest of us are just stuck with more visual pollution.

- "the teams and players are already ads in and of themselves"
yes sports are a business, but they're one of the few businesses that are supported with fandom. The disconnect between supporting a local sports team like the Chicago Bulls, and rooting for say, Post to sell more cereal is enormous. Sports are just different and the uniforms are representative of more than just a product. Concerts and tours are also sponsored by massive corporations, but it wouldn't be cool if you went to see a band and every member of the band was wearing a McDonald's tshirt. Same thing.

- "it's not that big of a deal"
It's a big deal. Even if limited to a single ad, the ad is small, matches the team's uniform in color and style (which will happen more rarely than not), and isn't intrusive, it will still make the uniform look worse simply by its presence. If something's presence can't improve upon its absence then aesthetically speaking it shouldn't be on the uniform.

It's a big deal now because you give 1.5" today and in 30 years we're watching The Coca-Cola Bulls. This happened in soccer. It will happen here. As a fan of sports aesthetics, aesthetics on their own, and a member of this forum, how can you possibly take this stance that it's not a big deal?

- "soccer and nascar do it and those sports still look okay."
Soccer, Nascar, european hockey/basketball et al all look terrible and their aesthetics would be vastly improved if they were to remove advertising.

[kamil]

[QUOTE=tomtucker]Former NBA boss David Stern made sure the nba was clean and good looking, he had the jersey manufacturer

[bdreason]

It's not that bad after reading the specifics.

The only available ad spot will be a 2.5 x 2.5 inch patch on the shoulder. Also, the ads won't be present on Jerseys sold to the public.