Ads on uniforms? Discuss the pros and cons
Don't see this topic on the board but if so please delete.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-to-allow-ads-on-jerseys-1460737136
It happens in other sports, notably auto racing, soccer, etc., and frankly I'm surprised its taken this long for major U.S. sports teams to put corporate logos on jerseys. And now that the cat's out of the bag I'm sure this will become the norm very soon.
Personally I don't like it, and while I'm quite comfortable with the tenets of capitalism, I am also struggling with WHY I don't like it. I guess the purist in me just doesn't like the iconic uniforms like the Old English "D", the pinstripes, the winged wheel, etc. to be muddied up with "Yum Yum" logos. Also, the naive little boy inside me wants to believe that the teams we root for belong to the community and not IBM.
And while we must acknowledge that all team uniforms already have apparel logos on them, let us at least agree that we will NEVER see some corporate shill logo on the maize 'n blue.
What is wrong with that? The people who actually stream stuff tended to be the ones pushing for the reclassification. If you use more data you should pay more, seems like a pretty fair and basic concept. The people this will hurt the most will be uber-connected businesses who most people don't really have an aversion to charging more anyways.
Don't care if it's a patch like the NBA is about to do...for PRO SPORTS ONLY.
Doesn't belong in college sports unless you're going to pay the players who wear them.
Pros - YES
College - NO
And I agree. Fine for the pros, if they want to do it, although you'd hear probably mostly from the baseball traditionalists more than anyone else. Definitely not appropriate for college, although can you imagine the revenue boosts to some colleges with AD's operating barely in the red?
That patch only. Just one. Not NASCAR...not WNBA where the Mayo Clinic's are playing the Farmers Insurance's.
Just one little patch like the apparel company, sell it, make a shit ton of money and be done with it.
Also wouldn't mind a rule stating the logo of the patch has to be in team colors. I like that they make AT&T switch their colors to maize and blue inside the Crisler center.
The negotiated promotional brand already appears on brand apparel.
Anything more recruiting revenues should be shared with the players-- if you want to make them an active billboard.
The well-preserved Michigan Brand should run from the trending Nascar and international trash and clutter.
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I am a big soccer fan and I am not even sure I like the sport. I just like the fact that there are no commercials and no pregame. (If the TV programming says the game starts 9, they literally kick the ball off at 9.) To make up for the lost revenue, they make the advertisers the main focus on their uniforms. To me, it's a great trade off.
So if the put ads on uniforms and take away some commercials, for example the Commercial Kickoff Commercial sequence that plagues the NFL, I would be all about putting on as much ads on they uniform as tehy could fit.
Unfortunately, I think we will likely head down a path where there are advertisements on the uniforms with no reductions in commercials.
that is what I think too. I don't think they are going for a "trade off," just "MOAR!!" And I know there has been a significant population boom out west but I wish the networks would not pander to that audience so much. Take the CFP title game, Hoopla from 8:00 to 8:45, kickoff at 8:50, game ends at like 1:15. Seriously? That is just not realistic for me to watch, period. The only way I am watching that game if Michigan is not playing is by DVRing it and then I usually just delete it because I know what happens. There is no reason that thing should not kick off at 8:00 or 8:10. It is a lot more likely that somebody on the west coast gets out of work an hour early to watch it than it is that I stay up until literally the middle of the night to watch a game in which I have no rooting interest.
a reduction in commercials. Pro stadiums already have thousands of ads all over them and that did absolutely nothing to reduce commercial breaks.
Pro teams care about more money first and foremost. Instant replays have sponsors now. I think the god damn digital first down marker has a sponsor.
If there is an opportunity for a league to make serious money by putting ads on their uniforms, eventually they'll do it. The only thing better than having a crap ton of money, is getting a crap ton more money.
Old-time, traditional teams and especially their fanbases would be up in arms about it, no doubt. Can't imagine teams like the Packers, Steelers, Yankees, Red Wings, Red Sox, etc. and their fans being happy that their uniforms, which are considered in many circles to be untouchable, would have a bunch of crap slapped on them like they were some cheap, obnoxious looking NASCAR uniform.
I think its coming to the pro level at some point. I just hope the college ranks can stay away from it. Can't imagine anyone in the Michigan circle outside of DB getting excited about the idea something like this happening.
Old-time, traditional teams and especially their fanbases would be up in arms about it, no doubt. Can't imagine teams like the Packers, Steelers, Yankees, Red Wings, Red Sox, etc. and their fans being happy that their uniforms, which are considered in many circles to be untouchable, would have a bunch of crap slapped on them like they were some cheap, obnoxious looking NASCAR uniform.
That's what people said about Barcelona and they ended their 111 year-tradition of not having a shirt sponsor in 2010. Sadly, if someone offers enough money, every team will do it.
Once fans accept it, it won't be long until the stubhub logo goes on the front of the jersey. That's what happened in the WNBA.
I don't like it. But I don't care enough to stop following Michigan football if they do it.
EDIT:
Pros: Money
Cons: Everything else. Beholden to someone. Ruins look of uniform, makes college football even less different than professional sports.
Lurking in the shadows, plotting to put LED light Toys R Us ads on our helmets.
Earmark some of the money for the athletes so they don't have to resort to selling drugs like those Alabamy kids.
I'm sure Nike (and their competitors) didn't pay all of the money to Michigan (and our competitors) to have a small logo, next to a much bigger one.
I guess the uniform contracts would have to be negotiated first.
If the additional money is used to pay players, then I'm all for it, otherwise, no.
I have an issue of cognitive dissonance with ads on uniforms. As some who follows the premier league and F1 I am somehow OK with it there. Yet I would think it was tacky if implemented in a north American major sport. Maybe that’s just because when I see it in the CFL it just looks desperate. Although if it ever tries to show up in college we riot.
OK maybe it’s not the advertising that’s desperate here, it’s the league
I see this happening more on the professional level rather than college athletics. They probably won't be as pronounced as they are on soccer or nascar jerseys, but there will probably be little patches on the uniforms.
Too much money at stake, from an entirely new and untapped income stream. I hate it too, especially for UM and for colleges (vs. pro sports). For schools with a nation-wide presence, like Michigan, to NOT do it really leaves alot of "free" money on the table.
Pros: There are absolutely none
Cons: we get bombarded by ads every day. We don't need to see some stupid thing sewed onto some jersey.
Who doesn't want to see a pair of tits on a jersey?
con: everything else
I really wish this post weren't buried on the second page.
Change your page-viewing settings.
CONS: Everything.
Pros: Nothing, except... the hypothetical idea that a small Chevy (or Herbalife, or Bimbo, or whatever...) logo would somehow result in less time on the field for the Red Hat Guy calling for a commercial. I know that none of those things would actually happen, I just really hate the Red Hat Guy.
Sports teams are making more money than ever before (especially from TV revenues) and yet the fans keep getting screwed. Ticket prices never go down, while there's more commercials and ads all over the place. It's pure greed... especially from the NBA.
First, some context: ESPN and Turner will combine to pay the NBA around $2.6 billion annually under the terms of the new deal, which won’t take effect until the 2016–17 season. Under the current deal, which was signed in 2007, ESPN and Turner paid the $930 million annually, so the new deal represents a 180 percent increase in the amount of money flowing into the league’s coffers. By comparison, when the $930 million deal was signed in 2007, it represented only a 21 percent increase from the previous one. No matter how you slice it, the NBA will be making a hell of a lot of money through the 2024–25 season.
http://deadspin.com/what-the-nbas-insane-new-tv-deal-means-for-the-league-a-1642926274
Yeah - the big four sports leagues are doing fine financially. There is no clear need for this. It's just a cheap cash grab.
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My biggest problem with ads on jerseys is that for sports like professional soccer, as a casual observer I don't have the faintest clue what uniform goes with what team. It seems kind of ridiculous that the jerseys will say Emirates (the only sponsor I can name offhand), or a telecom company, or whoever else, but seemingly don't have the actual team name on them...
...and yet they have the nerve to laugh at us for calling it "soccer".
I do recall Man U had a Chevy logo for a while, which was a farce conse Chevy dodnt even sell in Britian! They did it for the Asian market where Man U is hugely popular.
Also doesnt help that half the jerseys in soccer are sponsored by "Emirates" (or so it seems)
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It's tacky. The fact that foreign sports (and MLS) do it does not make it any less so.
I can't stand it. In protest, I will never buy any team's apparel of any kind if that team has ads on their game unis, not even if the particular item for purchase doesn't have the ad. I will make an exception for the logo of the maker of that team's athletic apparel. So take that, NBA! You just lost a customer. Screw your corporate shilling. You mess with the bull, you get the horns! So, um yeah, I'm not a fan of it.
Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long.
It's a bit ironic that all of the four major professional sports leagues--which are commercial enterprises--had previously prohibited corporate logos on players' uniforms while college athletic departments--which are supposed to be non-profit entities dedicated to the principle of amateurism--have been doing this for decades.
One of my favorite fictional sports movie endings.
Good sports comedies almost always fade at the end with the obligatory win/championship. The Bad News Bears was different, or almost unique in that down four runs with two outs and the bases loaded, Kelly Leak is called out at home just shy of a game-tying inside the park home run, and the Bears lose.
Not to worry. Coach Buttermaker lets his 12 year old team drink beers with him in the aftermath, and Tanner Boyle let's the winning Yankees know what he thinks of their perfunctory Bears cheer and apology.