NBA mulls cashing in on dunking billboards
Ads on hoops jerseys a potential windfall, but would fans buy in?
The National Basketball Association is considering placing ads on players’ jerseys, a seeming nobrainer of a revenue generator for a league that recently locked out players because, owners said, they were losing too much money.
But while ads on jerseys could pad owners’ bank accounts, they might also alienate fans and complicate players’ individual endorsements.
“Some gain and some lose. It’s really tricky,” said University of Ottawa sports business professor Norman O’reilly. “You’re going to bother some people, and somebody’s going to benefit.”
While the league has no timetable for sponsored jerseys, it has already begun tweaking other forms of apparel.
This week, it began selling T-shirts with star players’ teams and numbers, but also their Twitter handles instead of last names. NBA owners have much to gain from using players as billboards. A report in the Dallas Morning News estimates ads on jerseys could generate nearly $32 million a year based on TV exposure alone. While large-market teams with superstar players would likely attract higher ad rates for jersey sponsors, the league’s revenuesharing program would ensure smaller market teams benefited, too. Plus, changing a team’s jersey leads hardcore fans to update their wardrobes — additional merchandising money. To a point. Sports apparel industry analyst Matt Powell points out that fans who happily buy one redesigned jersey will feel exploited if a team changes its sponsors and apparel too often. “The diehard fan wants to wear what their favourite player is wear- ing,” says Powell, an analyst with Charlotte-based Sports One Source. “But changing their jersey every year . . . there’s diminishing returns on that. Not every fan can afford or is willing to pony up the money every year.” And it’s still not clear how fans will respond to corporations stamping their names on a cherished team’s jersey. It works for soccer. Wednesday night’s CONCACAF Champions League semifinal in Toronto featured a Toronto FC team whose jersey has always featured a BMO logo splashed across the front.
The jerseys of their opponents, Santos Laguna, had the name of Mexican retailer Soriana emblazoned on the chest and beer maker Corona stencilled across the shoulders.
Similarly, CFL jerseys feature the names of sponsors on their shoulder pads.
But no other major league in North America allows advertising on team uniforms, and some fans might fight back against the encroachment of advertising on one of the few sponsor-free spaces in big league sports.
“Authenticity is such a big thing in sports,” says Vijay Setlur, a lecturer in sports business at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “When you finally put ads on that sacred space, how will fans react?”
The sponsored jersey conflict can become especially acute for star players, who might have individual endorsements with competing companies.
Barcelona’s1992 Olympics was the scene of one of the most famous examples of this. As the U.S. men’s basketball team accepted their gold medals, Nike-sponsored superstar Michael Jordan draped an American flag over his shoulder to obscure the Reebok logo on his team-issued sweatsuit.