NBA To Allow Shirt Sponsorship

National Basketball Association (NBA) teams will be able to sell advertising space on their playing jerseys for the first time starting from the 2017-18 season.

The NBA said teams in the league, encompassing the biggest basketball clubs in North America, could place a 2.5in (6.3cm) square sponsor’s logo.

Teams until now have been unable to exploit this lucrative commercial option enjoyed by many other sports.

Experts predict the deals will generate more than $4m (£2.8m) a year for clubs.

‘Deeper engagement’

The NBA, which is the first major North American sports league to announce plans to put ads on jerseys, said a small patch would appear on the front left of match jerseys as part of a three-year pilot programme.

“Jersey sponsorships provide deeper engagement with partners looking to build a unique association with our teams, and the additional investment will help grow the game in exciting new ways,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Featuring their brand logo on shirts will give advertisers more opportunity to be seen by fans watching on TV.

David Carter from the USC Marshall Sports Business Institute said the pilot initiative was part of the NBA’s march towards “aggressively featuring corporate brands” on team shirts.

In June, the NBA signed a $1bn sponsorship deal with Nike that places the Nike’s “swoosh” logo on the right shoulder of all the NBA teams shirts.

The NBA’s 30 teams will be responsible for making their own deals with sponsors for this new patch space.

“Anything that makes the individual franchise more viable will pay a positive dividend to the league itself,” said Mr Carter.

The concern for teams and players will be how any new deal interacts with existing sponsorship agreements. A player, for example, that is endorsed by Pepsi may not be so keen to wear a Coke logo on their shirt.

Sport sponsorship

Company sponsorship is a huge revenue stream for sport globally.

According to Price Waterhouse Coopers global sport sponsorship revenue was worth $45.3bn (£32bn) in 2015.

Collectively, teams in England’s top football division, the Premier League, brought in £200m in the 2015-2016 season from shirt sponsorship alone.

The potential value of these deals for the NBA will vary greatly based on team.

“The big market teams already have hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, so as a percentage this won’t be much, but for the smaller teams the percentage this could add to sponsorship revenue will be better,” said Mr Carter.

Leading the way

The NBA is the first of the four big US sports to allow on shirt brand sponsorship.

The National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League do not allow sponsors logos to feature on playing shirts.

Leagues have been reluctant to put advertising on shirts for fear it will turn off fans.

The new sponsor patch will not appear on the retail version on the shirts sold at team or NBA stores, but the advertisers will be allowed to sell branded shirts at their own stores.

Credit: BBC

NBA To Allow Shirt Sponsorship

Playing league without sponsorship is heart breaking - Ben Kesse

Ben Kesse Administrative Manager of Medeama Sporting Club, has said, playing in the Ghana Premier League without a sponsors comes as a major headache for clubs due to the huge cost involved.

He said the cost of running and managing a club in is very expensive taking into consideration the cost of player salary and allowances, medical bills, transportation among others.

According to the Administrative Manager, the huge cost involved in running clubs, is suffocating owners of the premier league clubs and this has a negative impact on them.

He noted that, the situation has worsened over the past years due to the fact that, football fans were no longer interested in watching local matches.

He indicated that, proceeds from the gates in the last few years are nothing to write home about addind that, clubs have suffered huge debts after league matches.

Kesse called on the GFA to help the dying clubs by seeking sponsorship for them adding that, the clubs alone cannot help the situation.

Playing league without sponsorship is heart breaking - Ben Kesse

Lack of sponsorship: Dont blame the GFA president

Dr. Nyarho Nyarho-Tamakloe, Board Member of Accra Hearts of Oak, has said the president of Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi cannot be blame for the lack of sponsorship for the Ghana Premier League.

Speaking in an interview with Boss Fm, the former GFA president said, Nyantakyi cannot be blamed for the lack o sponsorship for the league because he does not work alone.

“We cant blame the GFA president for lack of sponsorship. I am sure he is not sitting there unconcerned, but he cannot be blame.

“He might have made efforts but we cannot say he is the reason for the failure.” He noted.

He said, playing the league without sponsors will put a lot of stress on clubs financially adding that it will also affect the standard of play.

“Clubs will be having very difficult times in the coming season because, we will play without sponsorship”. Dr. Nyarho-Tamakloe stated.

Lack of sponsorship: Dont blame the GFA president