Phoenix Mercury's Jersey Sponsorship... The Future of the NBA?

By Craig Kwasniewski

Trying to make ends meet in tough economic times the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA is putting a sponsor on the front of their jerseys. My first reaction?  Well this is the WNBA, do I care?  No really, do I care????  Of course they need to make money because in this economy the NBA is no longer subsidizing the WNBA and this looks like a last ditch effort to make ends meet in the fledgling women's league.  I get it.

But then I thought about it a little more... every major professional sports league has jersey sponsors except for the big three and a half (hockey of course) in the US.  Times are tough and the league is facing the first salary cap reduction ever and many of the non-playoff teams saw huge drops in attendance.  Television money is maxed out so a good way t make extra revenue is to sell jersey sponsorship.  Major League Soccer was able to pull it off with very little backlash so why not the other sports?  The timing is perfect especially with all the new exposure in places like China and Europe.  The NBA sold literally millions of jerseys in China the past  3 seasons, just imagine the exposure if the jerseys are sponsored.

So really this Mercury thing looks more and more like a test run from the NBA front office.  Let's see what kind of exposure and revenue this generates.  Will the very few WNBA fans fork out the dough and pick up the new jerseys?  Will the Phoenix Mercury be able to survive this season with the extra money?  It's all a test.

The way I see it, this will be a MAJOR bargaining chip in the upcoming CBA.  Will the NBA do revenue sharing or is this a team by team basis?  If so, will this create financial imbalance the likes of the English Premier League?  How much will this be shared with the players?  Will they continue to raise the salary cap?  And most importantly, how will fans react when they see traditional jerseys like the Celtics, Bulls, Knicks and Lakers with say AT&T slapped on the front instead of the team name? 

It works with european soccer leagues but will it sell here with fickle and tradition-happy fans?  Below is Josh Childress's Olympiacos jersey... the future of the NBA?  What do you think?

Comments

[Ted]

Derek Fisher couldn't guard half of the players in the WNBA.

[Ryan]

hey there dude, this is totally unrelated, but i wonder what you can say now about the magic making it to the finals, after all the talk about them not being at the same level as the cavs, celtics, lakers etc.? just asking.

[crizz]

This is nothing. Check out the Polish basketball league. Not only do the players wear their teams' sponsor logos, but often the team names consist of sponsor names. And those are for example (in asterisk): *Polpharma* Starogard Gdanski (pharmaceuticals), *Atlas* Stal Ostrow Wlkp. (adhesive mortar for tiles / other building products), Polonia *Gaz Ziemny* Warszawa (natural gas supplier) etc. Plywoods on the courts are so colorful, bestudded with all the logos, it is really hard to watch games on TV. You don't want it in the NBA, believe me.

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Sponsorships like this are really helping to build the global reputation of the NBA, a fantastic bit of news.

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