The NFL is among the latest pro sports leagues to consider allowing advertising on their uniforms. In this case, the Green Bay Packers would be sell a small area for a brand on team practice jerseys. While purists might look at this as yet another step towards the complete selling out by the league–and pro sports in general–you can also call it the next evolution in what teams have been doing forever.
The days of the places teams play being holy ground free from commercialism are long gone, if they ever existed. I was that purist not long ago saying that stuff like this is bad for all sports. Energy drinks replace city names as sponsors of soccer teams. Gatorade logos on player caps tilted just so for post-game press conferences. Coliseums named for online universities and overnite shipping companies. Shipping?
Problem is, you’d have to ban everything then: Nike swooshes on uniforms. NASCAR teams with wall to wall brands. Pepsi logos on scoreboards.
Every single one of those brands plus a whole lot more pay a ton of money each year so that they appear on camera at just the right time. Athletes have endorsed products for years off the field, it was only natural that little by little, brands would find their way back onto it. The sanctity of the field? Ha.
There’s no separating the two worlds anymore as far as fans or consumers go either, not when you have sports coverage 24/7 on ESPN, YouTube and everywhere else on the net. How can they? They watch Shaq play on TV, then during a break see a commercial with him in it, then go and order his shoes online.
The winning quarterback in the Super Bowl just happens to stop long enough for cameras to tell them he’s going to Disney World. Derek Jeter wears the watch you need to wear—if you want to be a winner too.
A logo on a practice jersey that will probably end up near where their Reebok logo already is? (Irony, delivered.) At the end of the day, purists may freak, brands may get a slight bump in PR, but the majority of fans will overlook this because they’ve seen it all before.
The only way I could see fans welcoming this and any additional advertising is if brands gave them something back in return. Why should fans pay just to see a Pepsi logo and not get anything? Wait, I know.
Because they already do.
(Original image via.)
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