{"id":8784,"date":"2021-01-19T16:18:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T21:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/?p=8784"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:46:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:46:07","slug":"pandemic-accelerating-sports-changes-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/pandemic-accelerating-sports-changes-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"How COVID Put More Ads on Pro Uniforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\">3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>\n<p>Are we just a few steps away from the Seattle Kindles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Corporate sponsorships have been an intrinsic part of the American sports experience for some time now\u2014but for a while, brand logos were limited to the boards around the hockey rink or the perimeter of the basketball court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But no more. Accelerated by a global pandemic, ads on sports uniforms have gradually and steadily gotten more prominent and intrusive. There\u2019s likely no way to put the genie back in the bottle at this point. But how did we get here? And how cluttered are these uniforms likely to get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/warriors?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@warriors<\/a> sign jersey patch deal with Rakuten, 3-year deal worth $20 million annually <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0yxwfvHXC6\">https:\/\/t.co\/0yxwfvHXC6<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dfDuBjnotZ\">pic.twitter.com\/dfDuBjnotZ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/darrenrovell\/status\/907589869966385153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 12, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the mid-2010s, ads were limited to the environment of play, rather than the players themselves. Professional soccer, NASCAR, and the international leagues of some other sports are exceptions\u2014their uniforms have prominently displayed ads for years. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/how-nba-boosts-a-citys-brands\/\">The NBA<\/a> became the first American league to break that barrier in 2017, allowing teams to splash advertising patches on uniforms. All 30 teams now wear a sponsor\u2019s logo on the left collarbone area, opposite a Nike swoosh that represents the uniform\u2019s manufacturer. A prominent manufacturer\u2019s mark is another first for the NBA\u2014previous manufacturer Adidas did not have a notable logo on the uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially intended to be a three-year pilot program, the NBA decided to make the program permanent. The patches are a pretty substantial source of revenue for each team\u2014jersey patch deals now net the clubs around $10 million per year, with the Golden State Warriors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/maurybrown\/2017\/11\/27\/inside-the-golden-state-warriors-record-60-million-jersey-patch-deal-with-rakuten\/?sh=10535cff7b59\">reportedly netting<\/a> a league-high $20 million each season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when you\u2019ve lost billions of dollars in revenue from tickets and in-arena sales, every bit counts. The NBA will now <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/2244758\/2020\/12\/10\/nba-jersey-patch-sales-pandemic-cash-declines\/\">rely on these patches<\/a> even more than before, in order to offset pandemic-related revenue declines. Based on an anonymous CEO\u2019s interview with Uni-Watch, teams are reportedly getting aggressive in seeking out big-time sponsors for big-time money. That CEO, who leads a major lifestyle brand, says he\u2019s been approached by six different teams about a partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019d be foolish not to at least have the conversation and hear about the offer,\u201d the anonymous CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/uni-watch.com\/2020\/05\/08\/exclusive-ceo-reveals-nba-uni-advertising-details\/\">told Uni-Watch<\/a>. \u201cTo be honest, they\u2019re very expensive. I was floored by the expense and the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the patches on game uniforms, the NBA recently approved a measure that allows teams to place larger ads on the uniforms the players wear for team practices and shootarounds. These ads are less controversial\u2014it\u2019s only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K9ZQhyOZCNE\">practice, not a game<\/a>\u2014and many fans don\u2019t ever see the team in its practice uniforms, save for occasional footage shared on social media by the teams or beat reporters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some more bubble scrimmage action, for your health \n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But this move represented an incursion on one of the last ad-free spaces in professional basketball. Will there be more ads on uniforms? Not yet, says Matt Wolf, a senior vice president in the NBA\u2019s team marketing and business operations department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs a league, we are always monitoring what\u2019s going on in sports and other industries. Listening to teams and fans, we do our best to remain open-minded,\u201d Wolf <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/2244758\/2020\/12\/10\/nba-jersey-patch-sales-pandemic-cash-declines\/\">said<\/a>. \u201cOver time, we\u2019ll continue to be open-minded in terms of revisiting rules and guidelines.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the NBA is keeping an eye on other sports, it might be interested in a recent move that the NHL approved. In late December, the league announced that for the 2020-21 season only, teams are allowed to display ads on the players\u2019 helmets in an effort to recoup revenues lost to the pandemic. Since the directive came with less than a month to go before the start of the new NHL season, not all teams have struck deals yet, and many of the ones who have are partnered with the brands that already hold the team\u2019s stadium naming rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our friends at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PPG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PPG<\/a> will be the first-ever helmet entitlement partner for the upcoming hockey season.<br><br>Full details on our new \n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, this change is only for the upcoming season, specifically to offset losses from a disrupted 2020 season. But the patches will undoubtedly generate significant funds for the teams that implement them, which means they\u2019re probably here to stay. Keen observers also noticed that when Adidas took over the manufacturing of NHL uniforms in 2017, the company\u2019s redesign of the NHL jersey template seemed to leave open space above the team logo for an <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/2260668-nhl-executive-warns-that-jersey-sponsorship-is-coming-fans-mourn\">ad patch in the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, some might be wondering: why is any of this a big deal? A patch no bigger than a few square inches wide does nothing to change the way the game is played, nor the abilities of those who play it. If ads increase the long-term viability of the league, why are they really such a big deal?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, for starters, the uniform is a tangible piece of sports, something from the game that the average fan can own. Many remember the joy they received as a kid, unwrapping their favorite player\u2019s jersey at the holidays. Seeing that clean look, that expression of graphic design, that piece of the game \u201ctarnished,\u201d in a way, can be disheartening. Clutter is ugly, for one, but also, there\u2019s increasingly less and less ad-free space <em>anywhere<\/em> anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And secondly, the patches serve as a reminder that above all, these leagues care about making money. It\u2019s no fun to hear, but that\u2019s the primary interest of the each league\u2019s shareholders. So for the graphic design purists who hate to see these community symbols cluttered by the logo of the highest bidder, it might just take some getting used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style='position: relative;width: auto;padding: 0 0 62.5%;height: 0;top: 0;left: 0;bottom: 0;right: 0;margin: 0;border: 0 none' id=\"experience-5ee1313c103da\" data-aspectRatio=\"1.6\"><iframe allowfullscreen src='\/\/view.ceros.com\/editorial-content\/landing-page-1-2-1-1-2-1-1' style='position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;bottom: 0;right: 0;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: 0 none;height: 1px;width: 1px;min-height: 100%;min-width: 100%' frameborder='0' class='ceros-experience' title='Inspire Curious Sign-up Embed' scrolling='no'><\/iframe><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/view.ceros.com\/scroll-proxy.min.js\" data-ceros-origin-domains=\"view.ceros.com\"><\/script>\n\n\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"myclass\">Thanks in part to the pandemic, ads on sports uniforms have gotten more prominent and intrusive. How did we get here, and how cluttered will jerseys get in the future?<\/div>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":8791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sports Uniform Ads: How COVID Accelerated the Trend - Ceros Inspire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thanks in part to the pandemic, sports uniform ads have gotten more prominent and intrusive. 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