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Last frontier: Ads on team jerseys
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jun 23, 2009 - 1:11:07 AM

When the WNBA season tipped off earlier this month, all eyes were on the Phoenix Mercury, or rather their jerseys.

What fans saw blazoned across the front is what amounts to an ad for  LifeLock, an identify-theft protection service.

There was the LifeLock logo just over the player's number, in large letters, where other squads display their team name. The Mercury name appeared as a small patch on the upper left side.

One might have expected an outcry. U.S. sports teams have long shied away from sponsor logos on uniforms, though the practice has long been accepted elsewhere in the world.

But there was no outcry.

In these hard times, Americans have come to accept these sort of sponsorship deals as necessary for the survival of their teams, and that suggests more will be coming.

Many think that the NBA, which owns the WNBA, could be next in adopting jersey advertising.

“I don’t know if it’s in the immediate future, but absolutely,” says Jimmy Lynn, who managed sports league partnerships during 14 years at AOL and now runs advertising strategy firm JLynn Associates.

“They’re constantly looking for ways to generate new revenue for the teams and for the league, and this might become one way to do it, if it’s done in a clean, professional manner, so it won’t be obtrusive.” 

European soccer clubs and Japanese baseball teams have engaged in the practice for years, but only in recent years has it begun to gain acceptance in the U.S.

A turning point came five years ago when jockeys won the right to wear sponsorship logos in the Kentucky Derby, overcoming objections that the practice violated so-called traditions of the turf.

For struggling sports teams, sponsorship deals could be the one thing that keeps them from going under. Major League Soccer and Arena Football League teams have struggled financially, and they rely on the revenue from  advertising on their jerseys.

The WNBA may well be forced to follow their example. 

Though the league won’t comment on whether it is profitable, the struggles of individual franchises are well known, and their financial problems haven't gotten better in this poor economy.

Last year the storied Houston Comets, who won four straight titles in the WNBA's early years, folded after failing to find a buyer.

The Mercury has refused to comment on how much the LifeLock deal is worth, but it includes ad space on the team’s court as well as other arena advertising space.

“You’re always looking for incremental revenue streams,” Lynn says. “The way this whole economy is going, with sponsorships being down, you have to be creative and look for more ways to increase revenue.”

Though the Mercury’s move has received a good deal of local and national press coverage, there have been no noticeable protests.
 
Star player Diana Taurasi’s jersey continues to sell at a healthy pace, even with the Lifelock insignia, and WNBA president Donna Oreander said she expects to see more teams enter jersey deals in the future.

Whether that will lead to the NBA also adopting the practice remains to be seen, but Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently told Sports Illustrated’s Dan Patrick that he thinks the league will embrace the practice in a few years, especially given enough money by the advertisers.

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