NBA Jersey Advertising: Flop or Not?

On June 20^th the National Basketball Association decided to accept advertisements on the uniforms of its players becoming the first of the four major sports leagues to allow this. Being an intern in the Consumer Marketing and Sales group, I felt that this was an interesting step in advertising, essentially creating a new medium for advertisers to get their brands out to the public.

Before the NBA sports like the WNBA and NASCAR had allowed advertisers to put their products on jerseys, driver’s suits, race cars, and whatever else they could slap a Wonder Bread sticker on. Advertising in NASCAR has always felt somewhat natural as brand names and advertisers often go hand in hand with a particular driver or car. Example being, every mother’s son at any of the big cup series throughout the NASCAR season knows that Tony Stewart is the Office Depot car and Jeff Gordon drives the Du Pont car. It’s just common knowledge and how the sport has developed. During the race there isn’t as much of a focus on the driver because all we see is the car and thus the advertisements, but to begin putting advertisements on athletes really doesn’t seem in line with what the NBA is.

You could argue that the WNBA has been doing this for years, but the Women’s National Basketball Association is an entirely different beast, a beast which is in fact starving for advertising dollars. The article reports that teams could expect to earn anywhere from $1.5 million to $7.5 million per year a relatively small amount in a market that grosses around $3.5-4 billion a year. The question then must be asked, is the revenue from these advertisements worth what could potentially be a hit to the NBA brand? The ESPN website could cover 90% of its websites in advertisements that move and vie for your attention while you are innocently trying to read about how your team did in last night’s game. It could have pop-ups and prestitials, all manner of distracting and annoying ads that although they would make ESPN more immediate dollars the detriment to ESPN’s brand is undeniable.

Fans have been clamoring since this announcement about how the “uniqueness” of jerseys will essentially be ruined by advertisements. Jersey sales go up with great athletes that change the face of the game and reconstruct how we perceived certain organizations. The way Jeremy Lin came bursting onto the scene for the Knicks this year was a revolutionary period for the NBA. Never had one player so shocked the basketball world in 25 games like he managed to. I honestly wonder if the same amount of Lin jerseys would have been sold if the Knickerbockers had uniforms sponsored by T-Mobile, one of their larger advertisers. I mean, how many Boston Celtics fans would happily trade in the KG or Ray Allen jersey they have now for one that has a big Sprite logo sewn on? How many Spurs fans want to see Tim Duncan sporting a jersey sponsoring something you blow your nose with? Let’s be real. The two organizations and their fan followings couldn’t be more different (something I cringe about as a Knicks fan), but it’s safe to say neither set of fans is going to be greatly appreciative of this change.

It’s at this point that the NBA must see that the advertising dollars it’s getting from these companies are worth the cheapening of the brand. Personally, I hope David Stern Armani Exchange’s this policy before he Lacostes the league its rep. Paul Frankly I’m sorry for making these jokes.