The WNBA has announced the largest sponsorship in league history, a four-year deal with Boost Mobile reportedly worth $10 million. As part of the arrangement, Boost Mobile logos will appear on the jerseys of 10 of 12 WNBA franchises. (The other two - the Phoenix Mercury and San Antonio Silver Stars, have pre-existing relationships with other wireless carriers.)
That got me thinking...
If putting a sponsor's logo on WNBA jerseys is worth $10 million, how much could the NBA raise in a similar deal? I asked CNBC's sports business guru Darren Rovell, who put the figure at somewhere north of $100 million.
That's a nice chunk of change for a league that reportedly lost $300 million last season.
Will it happen? Hard to say. Fans tend to react very negatively to the idea of advertising on jerseys... which has essentially made those jerseys the exclusive property of Nike and Adidas and the like. I don't want to see the average NBA jersey start to look like a NASCAR fire suit or have branding as prominent as an English Premier League team might. But I could live with something a little less obtrusive, especially if it means we get the league back sooner rather than later.
What do you think?
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