The NBA is One Step Closer to Replacing Team Names and Logos with Advertisements

[Brian Damage]

The Phoenix Mercury’s new uniform no longer has the words Phoenix or Mercury.

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Photo Illustration by Phoenix Mercury
The Phoenix Mercury released an image of Diana Taurasi to show how the name of a sponsor would appear on their jerseys.


Instead, the W.N.B.A.’s Mercury appears to have been renamed LifeLock, with the 10-inch-by-4-inch name of the identity-theft protection company stretching across the team’s jerseys. A small Mercury logo (the planet, with an M) appears like a badge on the upper left of the jersey.

Taking a cue from international sports, where displaying corporate names on jerseys is standard, the Mercury on Monday will announce a three-year deal with Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock that is worth at least $1 million annually.

“I think the league and all our owners embrace innovation,” Donna Orender, the W.N.B.A. president, said. “We’re constantly looking at ways to showcase the value we bring to our partners. And when the Mercury and LifeLock connected, it rang bells.”

During an off-season when one franchise, the Houston Comets, folded and the remaining 13 cut their rosters to 11 players from 13, the W.N.B.A. authorized its teams to let companies place their names on the players’ jerseys as part of broad sponsorship agreements. At least one other team is close to a similar deal.

Jay Parry, the president of the Mercury, said, “We thought it was time we stepped outside the boundaries and bring additional value to our marketing partners.”

Todd Davis, a co-founder and chief executive of LifeLock, called the jersey sponsorship “a dealmaker” but would not specify its exact value.

Davis is known for publicizing his Social Security number to promote the effectiveness of LifeLock’s identity-theft protection (a ploy that was not foolproof).

Putting company names on uniforms provide sponsors with nearly continuous exposure, as if the players were billboards in motion.

“This is inventory that’s not available any other place,” said Rick Welts, president of the N.B.A.’s Phoenix Suns, which owns the Mercury. “Every photograph, every piece of game footage becomes part of the picture.”

Davis said that although the Mercury and the W.N.B.A. did not have mass appeal, they had “fanatical” followers who appreciated the role of sponsors in the league. (LifeLock is also the title sponsor of two Nascar Sprint Cup races.) “Mercury fans have a real affinity for the sport,” he said. “They just go above and beyond to support it.”

He said recent findings from Javelin Strategy & Research gave LifeLock a demographic rationale for the deal: women are 26 percent more likely than men to be identity theft victims.

The jerseys of American professional and college teams have been largely devoid of corporate involvement except for smallish logos of the uniform makers. But with international soccer as a model, some teams in Major League Soccer and Women’s Professional Soccer wear uniforms with corporate names.

David Carter, a professor of sports business at the University of Southern California, expects to see more American leagues marketing jersey space to sponsors.

“The barriers will be reduced slowly in leagues that have rich traditions and storied histories,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “For newer domestic leagues, or even those that lack heritage, the ability to move forward with jersey sponsorship will be far easier and will happen sooner.” But he said he could envision conflicts between athletes who endorse one brand and teams that sell sponsorship to a competitor.

The W.N.B.A. and its parent, the N.B.A., have discussed selling uniform space for three years, but the idea has gestated far longer. When N.B.A. executives traveled in the 1990s to expand the league’s European business, the sight of players in jerseys with corporate names grew gradually less foreign, Welts said.

“The rest of the world considers this business as usual and assumes this is the way professional sports teams market,” Welts said. He said he was not worried about critics of LifeLock’s name on the Mercury’s jerseys. “I’m sure some unenlightened 50-year-old white male sports-talk radio host will think this is a sign of the apocalypse,” he said.

Said Davis: “They do this in European ball. It’s not a sellout.”

Davis said he expected to be criticized but he viewed the deal as the sort of “disruptive marketing” he likes. LifeLock’s rapid growth has attracted 1.5 million members, as well as lawsuits accusing it of misleading claims about its service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/sp...r=1&ref=sports

[James]

Good grief. Talk about GREED! I thought corporate named stadia were enough. Can you say "Cincinnati Procter and Gambles"? "St. Louis Budweisers"? "Kansas City Wal*Marts"? "Portland Nikes"? "Los Angeles Taco Bells"? "Chicago Wrigleys"? I could go on and on!

Hopefully the WNBA will fold soon. I wonder if NOW (National Organization for Women) and other feminist organizations are involved in keeping that joke of a league afloat at the expense of the NBA. What a way to "spread the wealth"!

[Schmoopie]

It's amazing how much sports have changed from being about sports to being about money and fame. Sad... very sad. Seattle has a soccer team called the Sounders (whom I thought were our soccer team the whole time, but since they are now "world players", I guess that makes them classified as a "new" team). They are really popular and their uniforms are horrendous! Neon green with a big X-Box logo on it. Talk about tacky! When I first saw those uniforms I thought Seattle had gone completely crazy and named them "X-Box"!

And what about all these stadiums and arenas being renamed for products and companies? I was so irritated when I heard that they had changed the name of the Texas Rangers' stadium to Ameriquest Field or some garbage. It used to be called "The Ballpark at Arlington", which I thought was cool.

Now Wrigley Field... well, that's a different story. That was named after the company but didn't the family help pay to build it or something? Back then I don't think it was all about the money.

[catlover79]

Please, NO!!!!

[Doodyville10019]

Originally Posted by Schmoopie

Now Wrigley Field... well, that's a different story. That was named after the company but didn't the family help pay to build it or something? Back then I don't think it was all about the money.

P.K. Wrigley and the Wrigley family owned the Cubs for many many years until the Tribune bought the team (I think) back in the 1980's. The Wrigleys also built (and owned) the stadium, too.