will there be ads on NBA jerseys next?
If you're watching the first round of the National Basketball Association playoffs this weekend, take a good look at the players' jerseys.
You'll see the standard features: names of the teams, numbers and names of the players.
Make a mental picture of what you're looking at. Because there's a chance the old-style jerseys may become just a memory.
As Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reported, NBA owners at a meeting in New York this month were presented with a display of six mannequin torsos. Three of the mannequins wore Chicago Bulls jerseys. Three wore Boston Celtics jerseys.
But the jerseys had been intentionally altered, for the owners' consideration. They were festooned with advertising. The prominence of the on-jersey ads varied: One version did away with the team name and replaced it with the name of a corporate advertiser; a second version featured the advertiser's name beneath the player's number; a third put the advertiser's logo on a strap of the jersey.
The NBA has not decided whether it will begin the move to jerseys bearing ads. None of the four major North American sports leagues -- the NBA, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Hockey League -- permits advertising on team uniforms.
You'll see the standard features: names of the teams, numbers and names of the players.
Make a mental picture of what you're looking at. Because there's a chance the old-style jerseys may become just a memory.
As Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reported, NBA owners at a meeting in New York this month were presented with a display of six mannequin torsos. Three of the mannequins wore Chicago Bulls jerseys. Three wore Boston Celtics jerseys.
But the jerseys had been intentionally altered, for the owners' consideration. They were festooned with advertising. The prominence of the on-jersey ads varied: One version did away with the team name and replaced it with the name of a corporate advertiser; a second version featured the advertiser's name beneath the player's number; a third put the advertiser's logo on a strap of the jersey.
The NBA has not decided whether it will begin the move to jerseys bearing ads. None of the four major North American sports leagues -- the NBA, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Hockey League -- permits advertising on team uniforms.