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Advertisements on Jerseys

Peter D.

Peter D.

Moderator
The NBA is set to have ads placed on their jerseys starting in the 2013-14 season.  With Bettman known to follow the NBA's footsteps, many believe it's only a matter of time before the NHL also taps into this revenue resource.  Some even suggest this could become a topic in the CBA discussions where players settle for a lower percentage of hockey-related revenue if revenue streams, through means such as this, are increased. 

What do you think -- would you mind if ads were placed on jerseys?  Could you accept seeing a McDonald's logo on the beautiful blue and white Leafs' jersey?  Would you be deterred from buying jerseys in the future?

Personally, I hate the idea of it.  Everything is advertised to death these days and I could never get myself to spend $200 on a jersey with a McDonalds/Toyota/Burker King, etc. logo on it.

However, I understand the NHL is a business trying to maximum their revenues and I would be more shocked if they didn't go down this road.
 
I don't know if to many of the teams would go for it. The big difference here is that, in the NBA, there's very little space for ads to get on screen while the game is being played. The NHL, on the other hand, has had ads on the boards for decades now. Putting ads on jerseys doesn't have the same level of increased exposure as it might have in the NBA. All things considered, I'm not sure ads on jerseys would be profitable enough for the NHL for it to happen.
 
bustaheims said:
I don't know if to many of the teams would go for it. The big difference here is that, in the NBA, there's very little space for ads to get on screen while the game is being played. The NHL, on the other hand, has had ads on the boards for decades now. Putting ads on jerseys doesn't have the same level of increased exposure as it might have in the NBA. All things considered, I'm not sure ads on jerseys would be profitable enough for the NHL for it to happen.
Click to expand...

But wouldn't the issue just be flat-out air-time? I mean, the players jerseys are often featured in tight close-ups. That's a lot of exposure, especially if the league wide jersey advertising would be sold as a whole rather than team by team.
 
Nik? said:
But wouldn't the issue just be flat-out air-time? I mean, the players jerseys are often featured in tight close-ups. That's a lot of exposure, especially if the league wide jersey advertising would be sold as a whole rather than team by team.
Click to expand...

Depends on how they try to sell it to the advertisers, but, my guess is, considering the size of the audience, the money they're already paying to advertise on the boards, etc, the money advertisers would be willing to spend would not be worth the backlash.

To advertisers, the main issue is usually eyeballs rather than airtime.
 
bustaheims said:
Depends on how they try to sell it to the advertisers, but, my guess is, considering the size of the audience, the money they're already paying to advertise on the boards, etc, the money advertisers would be willing to spend would not be worth the backlash.
Click to expand...

I'm just thinking out loud here but say you took one really big sponsor. Coke or McDonalds or something of that scale and put their little ad on every single jersey. Basically you'd have a situation where there'd never be another photo of an NHL player in game from this distance or further

sundin-mats-cp-080130-392.jpg


That didn't have at least one advertisement for your company. How many pictures like that get seen a year? How many jerseys would be sold to people with those ads on them?

I don't know if they'll do it but I have to think there's a ton of money there for someone.
 
Just look into any given European league... the jerseys are grotesque. The orginal team logo/symbol is sometimes almost lost to dozens of ads. Horrible idea.
The Czech Rep had that debate decade ago or so. It started with one ad only, then came the rule of three ads and nowdays to make it more profitable the sky is the limit.
It is not just the jersey though. It is the ice too. You can barely see the puck in all the zones. It is on helmets... Even the freaking puck has the some stupid ad from the reverse side.
If the NHL allows one ad, it will sooner or later end up exactely the same. The teams will always go for it as it means more money in their pockets. For the same reason the players will not oppose it either.
I guess, I am too conservative.
 
Personally, I hope it doesn't go there. I mean I don't pay any attention to commercials and ads for the most part, but we already have enough of that jammed down our throats, I'd hate to have to look at hockey and see even more of it. Especially on the jersey's, because as is mentioned above, it's grotesque.
 
Nik? said:
I don't know if they'll do it but I have to think there's a ton of money there for someone.
Click to expand...

Honestly, it's probably not as much as you think. In most markets, hockey interest/viewership/readership is low, and, really, that's the driving factor. I mean, yeah, for teams like the Leafs, Habs, etc, there's money in it for someone, but, for most of the league, the value isn't there for the advertiser. Overall, the potential source of income here is not significant for the league as a whole.

There's just not a strong enough audience at the national level in the US to bring in the kind of dollars to make it worthwhile.
 
bustaheims said:
Honestly, it's probably not as much as you think. In most markets, hockey interest/viewership/readership is low, and, really, that's the driving factor.
Click to expand...

But couldn't that be said about any piece of hockey advertising? From the boards to TV commercials? I mean, they sell them and that advertising isn't considered insignificant or not worth pursuing.

bustaheims said:
I mean, yeah, for teams like the Leafs, Habs, etc, there's money in it for someone, but, for most of the league, the value isn't there for the advertiser. Overall, the potential source of income here is not significant for the league as a whole.
Click to expand...

Well, there are two things that spring up there. One, you kind of hit on why I think it'd be valuable to sell it as a package deal as opposed to team by team. If you could go to Coca-Cola and sell them on the fact that every time two eyeballs get a decent glimpse of any NHL jersey they'll be seeing an ad for your company then they'd probably be willing to kick in for the eyeballs in Minnesota or St. Louis at a premium if they also got New York and Philly and Toronto and so on.

But the other and obviously neither of us know what this could be worth is that NHL teams tend to want every dollar, right? So to figure this won't happen it wouldn't be enough to say that it's not significant, you'd really have to argue that it would somehow be a negative.

I mean, I don't want to see these ads, I think they'd be a total eyesore. But I woudln't stop watching hockey. I wouldn't take part in a boycott over them. I'm too old to wear a jersey now but back when I wasn't I bought a Hibernian jersey same as I did a Leafs jersey and it had a big ad on the front.

So insignificant? I don't know but if it's even a million bucks a year you have to figure teams will want that.
 
drummond said:
Just look into any given European league... the jerseys are grotesque. The orginal team logo/symbol is sometimes almost lost to dozens of ads. Horrible idea.
The Czech Rep had that debate decade ago or so. It started with one ad only, then came the rule of three ads and nowdays to make it more profitable the sky is the limit.
It is not just the jersey though. It is the ice too. You can barely see the puck in all the zones. It is on helmets... Even the freaking puck has the some stupid ad from the reverse side.
If the NHL allows one ad, it will sooner or later end up exactely the same. The teams will always go for it as it means more money in their pockets. For the same reason the players will not oppose it either.
I guess, I am too conservative.
Click to expand...

Good point.  If the NHL has class it will avoid it.  However currently the people running it have no class.
 
"We had ads in the 20th Century, but only on TV and radio....and in magazines, and movies, and at ballgames, on buses, milk cartons, t-shirts, bananas, and written in the sky, but not in dreams."
 
Nik? said:
bustaheims said:
Honestly, it's probably not as much as you think. In most markets, hockey interest/viewership/readership is low, and, really, that's the driving factor.
Click to expand...

But couldn't that be said about any piece of hockey advertising? From the boards to TV commercials? I mean, they sell them and that advertising isn't considered insignificant or not worth pursuing.

bustaheims said:
I mean, yeah, for teams like the Leafs, Habs, etc, there's money in it for someone, but, for most of the league, the value isn't there for the advertiser. Overall, the potential source of income here is not significant for the league as a whole.
Click to expand...

Well, there are two things that spring up there. One, you kind of hit on why I think it'd be valuable to sell it as a package deal as opposed to team by team. If you could go to Coca-Cola and sell them on the fact that every time two eyeballs get a decent glimpse of any NHL jersey they'll be seeing an ad for your company then they'd probably be willing to kick in for the eyeballs in Minnesota or St. Louis at a premium if they also got New York and Philly and Toronto and so on.

But the other and obviously neither of us know what this could be worth is that NHL teams tend to want every dollar, right? So to figure this won't happen it wouldn't be enough to say that it's not significant, you'd really have to argue that it would somehow be a negative.

I mean, I don't want to see these ads, I think they'd be a total eyesore. But I woudln't stop watching hockey. I wouldn't take part in a boycott over them. I'm too old to wear a jersey now but back when I wasn't I bought a Hibernian jersey same as I did a Leafs jersey and it had a big ad on the front.

So insignificant? I don't know but if it's even a million bucks a year you have to figure teams will want that.
Click to expand...

Wait...we have to stop wearing jerseys when we get to a certain age?
 
drummond said:
Just look into any given European league... the jerseys are grotesque. The orginal team logo/symbol is sometimes almost lost to dozens of ads. Horrible idea.
The Czech Rep had that debate decade ago or so. It started with one ad only, then came the rule of three ads and nowdays to make it more profitable the sky is the limit.
It is not just the jersey though. It is the ice too. You can barely see the puck in all the zones. It is on helmets... Even the freaking puck has the some stupid ad from the reverse side.
If the NHL allows one ad, it will sooner or later end up exactely the same. The teams will always go for it as it means more money in their pockets. For the same reason the players will not oppose it either.
I guess, I am too conservative.
Click to expand...

Agreed.  I always despised looking at that crappy over-advertised, tacky-looking, Euro jersey.  I'm thinking of the Spengler Cup, where even Team Canada's jersey is difficult to decipher which country it represents!

Perhaps for the NHL, they probably could come up with a better placement for some advertising -- two the most on each jersey -- preferably on the bottom back.  Otherwise, there is no real need to advertise on NHL jerseys since there already is plenty of advertising seen around the rink already.

Hands off our jerseys!
 
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