The new 9 year/$24 Billion dollar TV deal between the NBA and ESPN/Turner was definetely eye popping but hidden in the deal was a clause that could potentially give the NBA an international look to their jerseys.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver even called this “inevitable” back in April that ads would appear on jerseys in the NBA, kind of how the WNBA has them. Now, it might actually become a reality. According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, the league’s new deal with ESPN and Turner includes a provision that gives the networks a chunk of the profits if the NBA decides to sell ads on their jerseys:
Early parameters indicate a distinction between whether a national brand or a local/regional brand buys a team’s jersey sponsorship. A national brand with a popular team would mean more money for the networks than a local/regional brand with a team that’s not on national TV very often.
According to sources involved in the discussions, if there’s a national brand with a jersey deal that would have bought time on ESPN or TNT’s NBA game telecasts — think Coca-Cola or Samsung — the two networks would get specific commitments from that company to also buy TV advertising during any nationally televised games featuring that sponsored team.
Sources familiar with the TV deals admit both networks pushed hard to be allowed to sell ads on team jerseys outright, but the league balked at handing over the potentially lucrative rights. 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.
Now is this good or bad for the NBA? No one quite knows yet. The money will come in but the jerseys will be different. It would be interesting though to see a Gillette logo on a James Harden, Houston Rockets jersey.
