Major League Baseball has worked out a new labor deal with its players. For the first time, baseball will have sponsorship logos on its uniforms. (Get ready to shoot your shot, Chico’s Bail Bonds.)
With the NBA and the NHL previously embracing ads on uniforms, the NFL becomes the one major American sports league that doesn’t let sponsors invade the uniform.
Currently, NFL cleats and uniforms display the logos of the manufacturer. Practice jerseys are permitted to have sponsorship patches. But the uniform and the helmet continue to be off limits.
Maybe that will be changing. There’s money for nothing to be made. Fans may not like it, but they’ll deal with it. (Remember when people actually cared about corporate naming rights for stadiums?)
The NFL’s biggest mistake continues to be not embracing jersey ads from the get-go. If they’d littered the uniform with logos like a race-car driver’s jumpsuit, no one would have ever said a word.
At this point, who will complain if the NFL finds a way to monetize the real estate on the uniform? There will be huffing. There will be puffing. But the only houses being blown down will belong to owners who bulldoze their current mansions in order to build even bigger ones.
