Hey
Guys! So I was sitting in my dorm
recently and I came across an article that talked about advertisements on NBA
jerseys. Thinking back to the days when
I was into basketball I was somewhat disgusted at the fact that the NBA would
allow patches to be sporadically placed on team jerseys in order to increase
revenues. What happened to the days when
a team’s jersey represented just that; the team. It also got me thinking, is marketing taking
over society?
It
was discussed in a previous blog post of mine, that marketing was everywhere in
society whether it is through magazines, newspapers, social media, television,
or word of mouth marketing can be seen in just about every aspect of life. Reading the article on NBA jerseys it can be
clearly seen that the only reason for these advertisements is to increase
revenues, increasing profits for a league and companies that already have high
profits. It is stated, “Under the new TV deals, NBA teams maintain the rights to sell
the jersey advertising, which has an estimated value ranging from around
$800,000 for small-market teams like the Memphis Grizzlies to more than $10
million for large-market teams like the Los Angeles Lakers.” Ultimately this means a massive increase in
revenues for NBA teams, depending on how big of a market the team poses. However, an $800,000 increase is still a
pretty penny even for small market teams that don’t have as large of a fan base
as big market teams. Although it has not
been officially stated that the NBA will move to jersey advertisements but as
the article writes it is “inevitable.”
It will be interesting to see how fans react to the new look of the
NBA. A large portion of the NBA fan base
grew up wearing jerseys marked by one advertisement, the NBA brans logo. This makes me question how well the jerseys
will sell if they do get advertisements on them. If they do not sell as much as the old ones
this could pose a negative impact on revenues for NBA teams which counteracts
the reasoning for the advertisements. It
will be interesting to see if these new jerseys are introduced within the next
couple seasons and how they go over with fans.
For now here are a few examples of potential NBA jerseys with
advertisements on them. What do you
think?
Overall,
I would like to make it clear I am in no way against marketing. I feel as though it is a necessity in
successful business practices. The issue
that I have is the push for everything to be a
marketer, even basketball jerseys.
A jersey is something that shows who you play for. It is commonly known that a good player plays
for the name on the front not the name on the back. By incorporating
advertisements to jerseys it takes away the pride that a player should have
when they put on that jersey. For
example Carmelo Anthony plays for the New York Knicks and the Knicks alone, he
doesn’t play for Samsung, ABC, and Mastercard.
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