Real Salt Lake first major US Team to have Sponsor on Front of Jersey
By: Bob | November 16th, 2006
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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Comments
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ack.
just because european clubs are better, doesn’t mean we have to give in that much more to the corporate machine.Posted from
Canada
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I’m all for MLS teams trying to make soccer profitable in North America. We need to bring in more sponsors to keep up the momentum of growing interest in soccer in the US. Money coming in = more resource.
Posted from
United States -
Ads on football kits suck, but without commercials, it can’t survive otherwise. Ah, well. Even Barca is caving….
Posted from
United States -
If it means we won’t have to see as many of those annoying ad units during the games (This score update brought to you by Bud/Coors/Gatorade), then it’s just one more reason all MLS teams should be jumping all over this. It’s a no brainer to have sponsorship on the jerseys and, IMO, much better than having a team named Red Bull. As a fan how do I get excited for a team that’s named after a drink. What happens when Red Bull decides to pull the pin? Fans have their team’s name changed frim under them. I’d much rather have Red Bull plastered all over the jersey.
Posted from
United States -
That was the one difference about soccer in America I actually liked- that the kits have the team name on the front of the jersey and not some sponsor. I always think it’s ironic when European sports annoucers chide some player for not remembering “it’s the name on the front of the jersey that counts.” What are they talking about? AIG? Samsung? Emirates? And the europeans like to critisize America for being too commercial, all about business, and caring about nothing else.
Sure, all professional sports are about business. But why not keep it about sport on the pitch at least.Posted from
United States
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