Thunder become final NBA team to put ad on jersey

All 30 NBA teams have jersey advertisements now that the Thunder got one.

Zach Lowe of ESPN:

The team said the deal ranks among the top 10 in average annual value, which would put it somewhere a little south of $10 million based on publicly known amounts. The league’s 29 patches have brought in more than $150 million per season so far, according to league sources.

Add the Thunder’s ad, and that revenue translates to about a $2.4 million increase in the salary cap.

However, that considers all jersey-ad money to be new money. Perhaps, some of those sponsors would have spent more on other NBA advertising if jersey space were unavailable.

It also doesn’t consider whether more jerseys would have been sold without players wearing the ads. Though most fans seem to disregard them, the ads have reduced the prestige and luster of NBA jerseys to some people.

Still, no matter how you assess the exact amount of additional revenue, this is still clearly a lot of incoming money – about half of which goes to players.

The NBA is technically in the second year of a three-year experiment with jersey ads. But with every team participating and reaping the rewards, they’re clearly here to stay.