NBA close to allowing ads on players' jerseys
National Basketball Association officials on Thursday said they are closer to allowing small advertising patches on team jerseys, a move that could come as soon as the 2013-2014 season.
League officials, including Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, discussed the development after the annual NBA Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Sun has the details in this report, but here's how it's supposed to work:
Silver said the ads would appear as small, 2½-inch-by-2½-inch patches, most likely along the left shoulder. That would require moving the NBA logo to the other side of the shirt.
The ads would also be present on replica jerseys sold at retail, which could displace the logo of the jersey's manufacturer, Portland-based Adidas America Inc., though details on that were less clear. Adidas' logo isn't present on the front of game-worn NBA jerseys.
The Board of Governors didn't vote on the issue Thursday. That's expected to come in September. But Silver, according to the Sun, said during a news conference late Thursday that "my sense is that every team is in favor of doing this in some form."
The program would bring in around $100 million in new revenue to the league, but it would also make it the first of the nation's top four sports leagues — the NBA, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League — to permit advertising on its gameday uniforms.
Major League Soccer, whose uniforms are also made by Adidas America, adheres to the long-standing practice of allowing ads on the fronts of soccer jerseys, a sport in which matches run 90-plus minutes with little opportunity for commercial breaks.
The move is already reviling uniform purists such as Paul Lukas at Uni-Watch.com. On Friday Lukas launched a Twitter campaign urging his followers to send tweets to the NBA under the hashtag #NoUniAds and send e-mails to the league voicing their opposition.
"This is a genuine red-alert crisis, people — even if you don’t care about the NBA (I don’t much care about it myself), this move would open the door for uniform advertising in the other Big Four leagues," Lukas wrote. "The threat is real, and the time to respond to it is now."
The Portland Business Journal is a news partner with KATU.com
So they play in Arco arena and we get to see the taco bell slam dunk of the night on the BofA big screen and this time out message brought to you by state farm..... pardon me says the announcer as I take a sip from my Starbucks, offical coffee of our team......now its halftime, lets take a look at the Alaska Airlines statistics board which will help us decide the mcdonalds player of the week.
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And yet some people are getting their nose bent out of joint because they want to put advertising on uniforms, oh please.
 @kramrÂ
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I have lived in Portland for 33 years and I have never been to a Blazer game and never will.Â
Soon they will all look like Nascar drivers.
Anything for a buck. They won't rein in the extravagant and unjustifiable salaries so they are looking for new revenue streams. Of course as long as television will pay $Billions for the broadcast rights; as long as the public continues to subside professional sports through stadiums, etc.; and as long as the general public continues to disproportionally value professional sports over many more important things in our society; we will continue to see ever more new and improved advertising plastered all over everything. Everybody is selling out, which is a sad commentary on the state of our society.
 @I812Â
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True and wisely said.
This is one of the big 4 pro leagues. NONE OF THE OTHERS DO IT.
I am soooo friggn' sick of the NBA's Bs
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I will boycott the products even I am the only one doing so
It's going to take more than jersey advertising to save the NBA.
I am so damn sick and tired of being bombarded with advertising.
There is no end to advertising. And, people wonder what is wrong this country? Â We are inundated with so much advertising much like the water boarding the CIA does to terrorist. Â It is being brainwashed into us and so we max out our credit cards to look and act like the Jones's. Â It is forced upon us with no way to avoid it.
I can guess the patches already: EA sports; Geico  ; McDonalds ; and Preparation H
Will that lower ticket prices so a normal family can actually afford to go to a game?
The incompetent David Stern continues to destroy the NBA by his ignorance creating ambivalence amongst the general public. It's not the same game, not the same players and certainly not the same entertainment it used to be.
Idiocracy is becoming a reality.
 @molotovmouse Just waiting for the fuddruckers name change :)
Anything for a buck. I can see the post game interview....First of all I would like to Thank, Budweiser, Trojan Rubbers, Couger.com yada, yada yada.
 @dkgiovenco They already do that.
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Most parades the commentators are required to name every contributor, perfrom some ad pitch and then begin the commentary.
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Indeed when was the last time you watched to listened to a professional game and not seen/heard an ad before they go to or come from a commercial break (iconic huh commercial BEFORE AND AFTER the commercial).
I'm happy to see that they will be able to supplement their income. It's hard living on pro sports wages. ** turn sarc switch off now**
I wish the people in Congress would wear the names of their sponsors.
No kidding!
When I played little league baseball I was sponsored by a local tavern. Their name was on my jersey. Seemed ok then but Major League sports is not hurting that bad.
Can you imagine the uproar if a tavern had their name on a kids jersey now. I'm not so sure this progress stuff is working.
 @bOB So true! In little league, that made it possible to play. In this case, it makes it possible to buy lear jets and yachts...