The NBA has been kicking around the idea of adding ads on jerseys in a similar fashion to the way it is done in professional soccer overseas, the WNBA and in the MLS. Although many are opposed to the idea, the ball is officially in motion with new NBA commissioner Adam Silver saying ads will be on jerseys in the NBA within five years according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell:
They’re most likely coming in the next five years, commissioner Adam Silver told an audience at the IMG World Congress of Sports on Wednesday.
“It just creates that much more of an opportunity for our marketing partners to get that much closer to our fans and to our players,” Silver said at the conference, put on by the Sports Business Daily/Journal. “It gives us an opportunity just to have deeper integration when it comes to those forms of sponsorship.”
It seems as though ads on NBA jerseys is unavoidable. There’s too much money to be made by putting ads on jerseys and it is something that has become incredibly successful overseas for some of the world’s most popular sports franchises like Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
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With adding ads on jerseys being a proven method for increasing revenue and the NBA looking to improve the revenue coming in on an annual basis, it’s no surprise that this would happen eventually.
There is bound to be a lot of backlash for making these alterations on NBA jerseys, but hopefully Silver and company are able to figure out how to do it the right way without alienating the fans in terms of buying jerseys.
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