A way to make more money in the NBA - Jersey sponsorships

Currently in the NBA, there are no jersey sponsorships on regular season game jerseys. Teams are allowed to have sponsors on practice jerseys only. Only two teams I know of have such sponsors, and sponsors are only given a small amount of space located near the players' right area at around the collarbone area. Both teams with practice jersey sponsors have also been able to sponsor naming rights for the practice court.

1. Phoenix Suns - The Annexus Group (annuity firm)
2. NJ Nets - PNY (computer memory maker)

However the two NBA affiliated leagues, those being the WNBA and the D League do allow teams to have sponsorships on regular game jerseys. Here are the teams right now that have sponsors. Until now, the only logo on the WNBA jerseys that is being presented is the adidas logo, which is the supplier of all the team uniforms. Adidas also supplies NBA team uniforms, but the adidas logo and name are not visible. WNBA teams are believed to be getting about $1 million/yr annually for having ads in place of the team names:

WNBA
1. Phoenix Mercury - Lifelock
2. LA Sparks - Farmers Insurance Group
3. NY Liberty - Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT (about 50 miles east of Hartford, 9 miles from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT)
4. Seattle Storm - Bing (example of jersey below)


(It should be noted the Connecticut Sun team already has a logo by default since their owner is the Mohegan Sun Casino as the Sun imprint is the same as the imprint for the logos of the casino, but this is not ajersey sponsorship.)

NBA D League
David Stern gave the go-ahead to allow D League Teams to have advertisements on the jerseys given the success it has in bringing in revenue for WNBA teams. Given that the WNBA has better reach than the D League, the sponsors have so far been smaller time and are regional institutions or businesses. Two teams were able to snag deals so far:

1. Erie Bayhawks - Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, located in Erie, PA (Example of jersey below)
2. Rio Grande Valley Vipers - Lone Star National Bank. This team is based in Hidalgo, TX and the McAllen, TX area, which is next to the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico which is a decent sized town.


Note that unlike WNBA teams, the D League teams with jersey sponsors still have the team name labeled prominently, and that the ads are below the team name.

My take:
I am a purist, and I don't like seeing walking ads like you see on NASCAR suits and cars, but if there are one or two sponsors on the jerseys, I don't mind, especially in this day and age when teams gotta find take and find any money they can. Teams should be free to find any sponsors they want to, but they are barred from finding apparel companies, like Under Armour and Nike, because all the jerseys are made by Adidas. Not like Nike would want its swoosh on an Adidas jersey anyway. I would lean towards major companies based in the city, and if there is a major ethnic minority or if the team's arena is in an ethnic enclave, that would also be neat. Teams also do not and should not share money generated from these sponsorships.

For example, the Washington Wizards could try get a sponsorship from:
1. Geico - Headquarters is in nearby Chevy Chase, MD
2. Volkswagen - US Headquarters is located in Herndon, VA which is about 20 miles from the Phone Booth
3. Mars, Inc. - Candy maker, and the headquarters is based in McLean, VA, which is also close by.
4. China Airlines - Plays to the fact that the Verizon Center is in Chinatown. I wouldn't mind seeing more Chinese in the Verizon Center to be honest since it is in Chinatown. Asterisk here is that this air line is based in Taiwan, not China proper.
5. Air China - If you want a mainland Chinese air carrier's name for the Wizards, this is it.

The Los Angeles Lakers on the other had could get a jersey sponsorship from:
1. Hanmi Bank - American bank based in LA. The name is Korean, and it is a bank targeted for Korean Americans. The largest Korean American enclave is in the Los Angeles area. There are some other Asian American targeted banks, some based in the "motherland" countries, but this bank is American. Koreatown, LA is about 2 miles away from Staples Center so it's definitely worth considering either them or a Korean corporation.
2. Korean Air - Again, plays for the Korean American population. US HQ is in LA. This may be a better fit for the Clippers because Delta is the official airline for the Lakers, so Korean Air may not work out, even though I think they both are skymiles partners.
3. Pollo Campero - Guatemalan fast food chicken chain with locations throughout central America, South America, Mexico, the US, Europe, and Asia. There are numerous locations in the LA area. US HQ is in Dallas, but it's worth a shot. Who cares if a restaurant chain is on the jersey? Money is Dinero!!!! This plays for the Hispanic population.
4. Farmers Insurance - Why Not? The Sparks have a deal with them. They should love to do this for the Lakers.
5. Disneyland - Again, why not? Disneyland is in LA! This would hurt the Magic's chance of partnering with Disney World.

How do I wanna see jersey sponsors? I'm leaning toward the WNBA route, because if a sponsor is going to be on a jersey, let them have the prominent part of it. Then again, I understand that the team name is still very important to the league and can there still be a way to display them.

fuck that ghetto AAU lookin shit lmao

Visa, are you talking about the D League jerseys?

Nah..but logos on jerseys just look low budget

I agree with you, they do look low class, especially if placed the wrong way like the D League jerseys. The WNBA has done a better job by just having the logo on the front in place of the team. However, you have some teams that are just continually losing money and if they can get another $3-5 million/yr from a company in exchange for jersey sponsorship, I'm for it. I'm assuming that businesses will dish more money to NBA teams for these rights if they're already dropping over a million a year for the WNBA.

No one else cares about jersey sponsorships?

nah I don't like it. makes the jersey look too busy... well not really, but kinda haha.

Bulls N' Bears wrote:

nah I don't like it. makes the jersey look too busy... well not really, but kinda haha.

Other major sports leagues are doing this, the famed soccer powerhouse Manchester United of the English Premier League has AON, an insurance company as a jersey sponsor. They used to have AIG as the sponsor, and got a reported 80 million pounds over four years. That is $130 million in four years for their jersey to look like this:



As a purist, I'd rather see United on the front, but they're making 20 million pounds a year ($32 million/year) just for the name on the jersey and if I were Dr. Buss of the Lakers, or Reinsdorf of the Bulls and I had that kind of money thrown at me, I'd take it. If Lifelock and Microsoft (for bing) pay $1 million a year for their names on a WNBA jersey, and Manchester United gets $32 million, the Lakers could score a deal closer to that of Manchester United than the deals the Sparks and Storm made as a form of reference. The Wolves and Kings should also be able to score pretty nice deals themselves, though not quite at the level of the Lakers, but still enough to cover a substantial amount of the losses they incur.

I can see WHY teams would do it. $$$.

...and it would make teams/NBA a lot of money.

I just don't like how it looks.

Bulls N' Bears wrote:

I just don't like how it looks.

I think the route of the WNBA is what an NBA jersey would look like with sponsorship rights. Let the company take the whole front of the jersey, and have a secondary team logo on the player's left collarbone area. The Storm players you see in the first post would be the best look for such a deal.

The D League jersey with the team name and an ad below it just looks hideous, and sponsorships wouldn't be as lucrative if that's the only way they'd happen. Big corporations will still pay, but they'd pay more to take the front of the jersey where the team name would be.

Not too fond of the idea.
A little too excessive for my liking.

Black and Silver wrote:

Not too fond of the idea.
A little too excessive for my liking.

Well, it may be that way for everyone within 20 years or so at most...

I learned from a blog maintained by one of the Wizards higher ups that the Mystics are going to do something big very soon, which I guess is a jersey sponsorship, because any free agent signing would've been mentioned by now.

Looks unprofessional..the NBA is for the best players to come compete and win, not for the best players to come and sell your products.

Raza wrote:

the NBA is .... not for the best players to come and sell your products.

It's a paradox. The athletes already do sell products, most notably the star players based on shoe contracts and the best players pretty much all have shoe contracts.

Are you trying to say that the players shouldn't be selling products which they don't get any direct income share from? Because with jersey sponsorships, players aren't getting a percentage of a sponsorship deal's pay, no. But the team does get revenue from the sponsorship and it does get to the player's paycheck, though there is no specific percentage given to a player.

I'm for jersey sponsorships. But not to the extent that it's more important on jersey than the team name.

The players DO sell shoes, but what to they wear on their feet? Those shoes. Also, shoes relate to basketball. They can promote shooting sleeves, headbands, shoes, socks, and its all good because those are things that they use. But if they put an insurance company on their jersey...why?

I like the debate here Raza.

Players sell non-athletic related merchandise.

LeBron James is a Coca Cola Sponsor and was featured on many Coke and Sprite commercials. Blake is selling Subway Sandwiches selling the steak, egg and cheese. Those ads could end up on their shoes and shooting sleeves too.

LeBron may soon find a way to get Sprite and State Farm ads on his gear if that nets him more money.