Advertisements To Appear On NBA Jerseys Within Two Years

It begins as a bunch of 2-inch-by-2-inch patches.  Ten years later, NBA uniforms look like this.  Can you dig it?  I know I can’t.  NBA owners certainly can, though, because the little patches alone are expected to generate up to $100 million per season, according to Adam Silver.  The following courtesy of ESPN.COM…

Come fall, it’s highly likely you’ll see a small 2-inch-by-2-inch sponsorship patch stitched on the shoulder of your favorite player’s game jersey.

“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.”

How big an opportunity? In 2010, the 20 teams in the English Premier League generated $178 million in revenue from shirt sponsorships. Granted, a 2-by-2 insignia probably won’t fetch anywhere near what an EPL team gets for draping a sponsor’s logo seam-to-seam across the chest of its players, at least not initially. But even a fraction of $178 million has to be enticing to NBA owners.

“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.

See, I’d be alright with it if I knew the advertisements would never expand beyond the 2-inch patch.  However, I think we all know damn well that this is just the beginning.  Once advertisers get their collective foot in the door I expect that the league will slowly allow them to buy more and more space on players’ jerseys.  While I fully understand that this league is a business and that adding an extra $100 million in revenue is a good thing for any business, I can’t help but not like the thought of a crispy-clean Boston Celtics jersey with the word “Yahoo!” scribbled on it.  Sorry.

Also, the league plans to expand instant replay.  From the same article…

Next season, we’ll see an expansion of instant replay. All flagrant foul calls will go for immediate review to determine whether they constitute a “Flagrant 1,” the more egregious “Flagrant 2,” or a garden-variety foul. During the last two minutes of regulation and the entirety of overtime, officials will consult video to confirm the accuracy of a goaltending call and to determine whether a defender was inside or outside the restricted area on a block/charge call.

I think I’m okay with this.  I remember how upset I was when the Blazers lost to the Thunder last season as a result of a bogus goaltending call, so to say I’m not okay with this would make me a hypocrite.  I just fear the NBA becoming like the NFL, where it seems that every single play is put under a microscope.  I suppose that’s not an option with basketball, though, as there’s no stoppage in play after every single possession.

Man, I feel like sports were simpler when I was a kid.  Maybe that’s because I was a kid and everything seemed simpler.  I don’t know.  Whatever the case may be, I liked things better when Allen Iverson was MVP and Jay-Z was big pimpin’.

I’m too damn nostalgic for all of these changes.