The NBA All Star Game is coming this Sunday, and it will feature something no one has ever seen before in the Big Four Sports.
The All Star Game jerseys will have advertisements. A Kia Motors Corp. logo will be emblazoned on the right chest of the uniforms. It’s the first step in what may eventually be a permanent feature on NBA uniforms.
Now, this is a common occurrence in other professional sports. Manchester United wears Chevrolet jerseys. The WNBA has advertisements on their jerseys. The MLS has a team named after a sponsor in the NY/NJ Red Bulls. Every NASCAR driver is a walking billboard. Despite all of this, it seems that major league baseball will sooner eliminate the DH than have advertising on their jerseys.
The seminal moment on this issue arose in 2004. Initially, MLB entered into a deal with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures that would place the logo for the movie Spider-Man 2 on the bases around the infield.
The fans lost their minds. The public outcry was so fervent that two days after the announcement MLB and the movie studio killed the deal and announced the advertisement would not appear on the bases.
“We listened to the fans,” said Geoffrey Ammer, president of worldwide marketing for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. “We never saw this coming, the reaction the fans had. It became a flash point — the reaction was overwhelming.”
Over a decade later, it appears that MLB is no closer to advertisements on the field or on the uniforms. For what it’s worth, Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that he does not see advertisements on jerseys happening.
It was less than a decade ago the naming rights issue to Citi Field was a hot button issue. The Mets and Citigroup came under increased scrutiny over the naming rights deal because Citigroup had just received a huge taxpayer bailout.
There were cries for the Mets to return the money and find a new sponsor. The outcry would most likely have been even worse if the Citigroup logo had gone on the Mets jerseys as was initially planned.
As luck would have it, the Mets couldn’t have a Citi Field patch on their uniforms as it was shot down by MLB. Instead, the Mets had the “Inaugural Season” patch instead of a “Citi Field” patch.
That season the Mets still caught a lot flak for a poorly designed patch that would be referred to as the Domino’s Pizza patch. Long story short, MLB’s policy ultimately had a positive effect and the subject of corporate logos on baseball uniforms essentially went away.
So while the NBA goes forward with their plan to advertise on jerseys, MLB will continue to keep the field and uniforms free from advertising. At the end of the day, I prefer MLB’s line of thinking. I’m loathe to think of a scandal involving an advertiser that became the focus of each and every Mets game. So no, advertisements do not belong on MLB uniforms. and I’m glad it’s going to stay that way.
