12/30/24
September 29, 2006
Chico's Bail Bonds is still ineligible apparently: With Red Bull owning a team and therefore technically already avertising on their uniforms, MLS will start selling ads on the front of team jerseys.
They would never do anything so grossly commercial in a real league like the Premiereship.......Nevermind.
posted by BlueCarp at 11:11 AM on September 29, 2006
I would love to see my namesake sponsor a team.
posted by SummersEve at 11:14 AM on September 29, 2006
"Aside from Nascar, no major American sports league permits prominent advertising on team jerseys" And which sport is generating more dollars per fan in America than any other? Or at least biggest percentage increase in dollars per fan.
posted by billsaysthis at 01:53 PM on September 29, 2006
Nothing would be funnier to me than watching Landon Donovan galavant around with a Summer's Eve logo on his jersey.
posted by igottheblues at 02:02 PM on September 29, 2006
Crystal Palace spent a long time running about with "Virgin" on their chests. This is where you cue the joke about them never having scored... etc.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 02:22 PM on September 29, 2006
This is a good move for the MLS, which is getting closer to real respectability with the soccer-specific stadiums. Before I started following the Premiership, I would've hated the ads. But it's a soccer tradition that makes money for clubs, so it's hard to see why the U.S. teams shouldn't try it.
posted by rcade at 02:23 PM on September 29, 2006
Canadian Football League teams have been doing this for a number of years. I barely notice the patches on the front of the jerseys. It certainly doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game, or distract me at all.
posted by tommybiden at 02:45 PM on September 29, 2006
I would think that, given the ubiquity of advertising on soccer/football jerseys/kits, it would actually enhance MLS's credibility to have advertisements, as long as they can maintain some basic standards.
posted by avogadro at 06:51 PM on September 29, 2006
This is not a good move because then other sports leagues will follow and then every sport will turn into a big ball of advertising and it will keep getting bigger and bigger.
posted by nort_12345 at 10:52 PM on September 30, 2006
If you compare this to what happens at your average NBA game (where you are bombarded non-stop by ear-splitting volume, product promotion during every piddly time out), this is pretty mild. In the EPL, the name is planted on the shirt, and really, no other mention is made of it. Unlike the "this third down conversion is brought to you by Gatorade" world of American professional sport. Like rcade, when I first started watching EPL games as a kid, I always thought it was odd that they had corporate brands on their shirts where one might be accustomed to seeing the team name, but I kind of grew to like it. The proliferation of commercialism (other than the ads on billboards at the perimeter of the pitch), almost stopped there. In American sport, where they do not (yet) put adds for corporations on jerseys, you have individuals like Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson that are practically owned by corporations like Nike and Reebok, and paying them to say things like "I'm going to Disneyworld" after they win the big game. If I had to choose, I'd rather have a big logo on my favorite team's jersey, than all the other crap that's foisted upon us.
posted by psmealey at 06:16 AM on October 01, 2006
Well, that completely messes up my personal advertising budget.