The companies declined to disclose financial terms. The move was made without approval from team owners, something the league would need for ads on jerseys during regular season games.
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There are various ways the league can go about doing this, but it makes sense from a business standpoint that they begin integrating ads onto jerseys, even if they might not look aesthetically pleasing. National Hockey League teams have been able to put corporate sponsorships on their practice jerseys, but not on game jerseys, a league spokesman said.
While advertising on jerseys is common in European soccer and NASCAR, Germano said “it will mark the first time that one of the four major American professional sports will display a non-apparel logo on jerseys during a game”.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association, did allude to the possibility of ads on jerseys when he took the position back in 2014 during an interview with Michael McCarthy of AdAge.com. The Kia logo will appear on a 3.25-inch by 1.6-inch patch on the upper left side of the uniforms.
The 2016 All-Star Game will be in Toronto in February, and in Charlotte, N.C. for 2017. The uniforms’ manufacturers such as Nike sometimes have their logo on the uniforms.
Nevertheless, this Kia partnership is a new venture if only because an affordable automobile does not seem to have much to do with a low-effort basketball game featuring the sport’s biggest stars. Yet that’s a difference of degree and not kind, because Kia served as an essential part of Blake Griffin’s 2011 dunk contest win and is a safe bet to show up in every other commercial break during a nationally televised game. This battle was decided long ago.
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According to Sara Germano of the Wall Street Journal the league will add an advertisement for Kia to the All-Star jerseys for the next two seasons. Mid-market practicality is never the greatest fashion statement.
