Real Salt Lake first major US Team to have Sponsor on Front of Jersey

You would think that in the land of non-stop commercialization that a major league sports team would have had an advertising sponsor on the front of their jerseys by now, but that hasn’t been the case in the United States until today. Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake joins the rest of the civilized football world by adding a company’s name to the front of their kits (I guess we aren’t counting Red Bull as being a sponsor).

Alas, in a state where Mormons rule the roost, the sponsor is neither an adult beverage nor a schoolyard name, but rather a dietary supplement juice company called XanGo (think prune juice on steroids, the couple in the ad sure look frisky drinking it). I swear The Offside was just spammed by XanGo the other day.

The sponsorship will pay between $4 million and $5 million for the four-year deal

“The interesting thing is this is an envelope they’re pushing domestically, but that’s already open internationally,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “So it’s not all that revolutionary. Credit MLS for being in a position to take advantage of a sports marketing vehicle that’s available everywhere else in the world.”

I give MLS partial credit for this. It is something they should have done years ago. Even the second division USL teams have had advertising on their kits for years. My favorite being the Minnesota Thunder’s former sponsorship by Target, which led many an opposing fan to chant “target practice” at their keepers.

We can all wait with baited breath to see which sponsor will land on the jerseys of the team playing at The Dick.

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Category: MLS