Small ads likely will be on some NBA jerseys by next season

It’s about the money. It’s always about the money.

And putting a small 2-inch by 2-inch adverting patch on the shoulder of NBA jerseys can generate a lot of money, NBA Deputy Commissioner told the NBA owners on Thursday. Then he said the same things to reporters after, as reported by Kevin Arnovitz at ESPN.

“Our view is we think, on an aggregate basis, league-wide, our 30 teams could generate in total $100 million by selling that patch on jerseys, per season,” Silver said.

If you were paying attention during the lockout, you know the owners are not going to walk away from $1 let alone $100 million or so. Silver said he thought all 30 NBA owners were good with this in some form — some probably wanted to go full English Premiere League but the idea of a patch on the shoulder is less intrusive to tradition.

And they are wasting no time.

“I think it’s likely that we’ll do something, implement something, some sort of plan for the fall,” NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said. “I think it’s fair to say that our teams were excited about the opportunity and think there is potentially a big opportunity in the marketplace to put a two-by-two patch on the shoulder of our jerseys.”

He said it should be in full force by the season after next.

Some fans will hate this with a white-hot passion.

I’m not one of them. I think a patch on the shoulder is not that intrusive, especially if the design is controlled. (There will be lengthy lists of companies teams cannot sell to, including competitors of league sponsors). The league might let Adidas — the league’s official jersey maker — use their logo on there. Or some simple symbol (say the McDonald’s golden arches or the “AA” of American Airlines) would not be a big distraction, but would get plenty of airtime.

Like it or not, you’re going to see it next year. And if you go into the team story to buy the new Raymond Felton Knicks jersey (hey, somebody might) the ad will be there on it, too. Seriously.