Nearly anything and everything can sport advertising these days, including professional sports. Brands can access millions of views, and hours of airtime, in exchange for just a single sponsorship deal. Although billboard-style advertising has long appeared in arenas and fields, and many facilities feature the names of brand sponsors, a more recent development involves the uniforms worn by the players themselves.
Major League Soccer was the first major U.S. professional league to allow uniform advertisements, starting in 2007. When the National Basketball Association introduced jersey sponsorships in 2017, it experienced a 7 percent annual growth in revenue. By 2022, the National Hockey League followed suit, achieving a 10 percent increase in just one season. Major League Baseball was the hold-out, refusing to allow outside commercial interests to dictate uniform designs.
Until now. For the 2023–2024 season, MLB began allowing sponsors to place patches on players’ uniform sleeves and helmets. It also let teams add additional advertising space in their dugouts, which offer the promising potential for brands that might appear right next to the players on broadcasts. These changes promise benefits for not just the league but the players and teams too, both of which stand to earn millions in additional revenue yearly.
Various marketers, and especially retailers, have been quick to embrace this novel advertising space. The San Diego Padres were the first team to announce a deal for 2023, with Motorola. Soon after, QuikTrip convenience stores announced its own four-year deal with the Kansas City Royals. Based in Oklahoma, the brand has a large presence in the Midwest, including 78 stores in Kansas alone. Through this sponsorship, the brand can engage in appealing ways with local fans. The goal is to increase both visibility and brand loyalty, as well as drive up sales at nearby stores. Not satisfied with one region, QuikTrip has also inked deals with the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
Another convenience store chain, Sheetz entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Pittsburg Pirates, primarily in the hope of challenging the popularity of some of its well-known competitors, such as Wawa, in the region. This three-year deal is notable for its expansive scope, such that the sponsorship provides for advertisements during community events, including affiliated youth sports and participation in the team’s annual Clemente Day of Service.
Still, some experts caution against an overly hasty implementation. The MLB Players Association, which is responsible for selling the publicity rights for its players, has already sued some teams and sponsors that allegedly misappropriated player names, images, or likenesses. Sheetz and the Pittsburg Pirates have come under specific fire, after the Players Association claimed that the chain promoted images of players on sponsored uniforms, without the required license to share those images.
Discussion Questions:
- Are advertisements on professional sports jerseys a good way to market to consumers? Why or why not?
- What other events or programs might MLB team sponsors design to tailor their marketing efforts to consumers?
- Why might MLB initially have been hesitant to allow advertisements on uniforms? What are some ways in which such sponsorship plans could go wrong?
Sources: Mitchell Parton, “‘It Goes Beyond the Patch’: Why Retailers Like QuikTrip Are Putting Their Logos on MLB Uniforms,” Modern Retail, September 3, 2024; “MLB Officially Allowing Ads on Uniforms in 2023,” Sports Illustrated, July 19, 2022; Terry Lefton, “Pirates Sign Convenience Store Sheetz to First Jersey Sponsorship,” Sports Business Journal, June 21, 2024