North American hockey sports teams could be wearing jersey ads soon :/
demetrios
Posts: 91,227
Back on Sept 17th .. NHL says no to jersey ads .http://www.tsn.ca/westhead-nhl-says-no-to-jersey-ads-and-120m-windfall-1.85030
Today ...
North American sports teams could be wearing jersey ads soon:
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/11/06/nhl-jersey-sponsors-coming-and-happening-report
By Mike Zeisberger, Toronto Sun
Introducing the Montreal Molson Canadiens. Pass the bottle opener.
How about the Toronto Maple Leaf Hot Dogs?
Or, perhaps, the New Jersey Dirt Devils?
Now, just imagine those names splattered on the front of their respective NHL jerseys.
It might not be such a far-fetched concept as you think, given the comments from NHL chief operating officer John Collins on Thursday.
Speaking at the Neulion Sports Media and Technology Conference, Collins said that jersey sponsorship is “coming and happening.”
That sparked a media frenzy under the assumption that Collins was referring to the NHL. But an NHL spokesman later told TSN that Collins was speaking in terms of North American sports, not specifically the NHL.
Expect the league to further clarify Collins comments in the coming days.
Either way, there is precedent in the NHL. The Kings already have small patches depicting the McDonald’s logo on their practice jerseys, while the Red Wings have a similar setup on their workout jerseys with Amway.
Jersey advertising is far more in-your-face in Europe, where some hockey uniforms make players look like billboards on blades. It’s just as prevalent, if not more, in soccer’s English Premier League, where the Chevrolet emblem is splattered on the front of the famed red Manchester United uniform.
The NHL obviously sees it as an avenue for increased revenues, with some reports suggesting it could bring in as much as $4 million US annually per team. At the same time, if the ads are too big or too bold, expect there to be significant backlash from loyal fans who love the jerseys the way they are.
The NHL has stated in the past that it didn’t want to be the first of the so-called “Big Four” North American pro sports leagues – the NFL, NBA, and MLB being the others -- to take this course of action, although a change of heart would make sense.
Why wait for the other leagues to get their paws on slices of the corporate pie when, by adopting ads on jerseys before those others, the NHL pretty much would have companies coming to them?
Collins also told the SportsBusiness Journal that the league is continuing to test digital replacement technology for board advertisements. Electronic sign boards already are used in world soccer, framing the various pitches of many prominent stadia.
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Seriously, have you ever seen European hockey uniforms? They're nightmarish.