NBA, owners to talk detailed ads-on-jerseys plan

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The NBA is taking a step closer to putting advertisements on jerseys.

Sources told ESPN.com that the league sent out a memo this week ahead of the owners meeting this Sunday at the NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, where the topic of putting corporate logos on uniforms is expected to be discussed.

Sources say the NBA’s planning committee is seeking comments from teams in advance of the April Board of Governors meeting. The committee will continue to meet with team feedback, which will determine if it makes the April meeting agenda.

Under the league proposal, which must be approved by the Board of Governors in April to come to fruition, teams will be able to sell one corporate logo on their uniform for the 2017-18 season. That would give teams a year to sell, and it also matches up with the league’s new apparel deal with Nike.

In order to address the disparity in market size and the value that larger cities would have compared with smaller cities, the league is proposing that 50 percent of the money from a deal would be kept by the team while the other 50 percent would go into a revenue-sharing pot.

Deals would be restricted to three years, much like the sideline floor sponsorship deals that the league approved in 2013.

An NBA spokesman declined to comment on the memo.

If the league begins to put ads on its jerseys, the NBA would be the first major sports league to do so on regular game-day jerseys.

The league first started discussing the subject of ads on jerseys in 2009, the same year the WNBA agreed to allow the practice. That was also the year the NFL started allowing teams to sell sponsor patches on practice jerseys.

In 2011, Adam Silver, then deputy commissioner of the NBA, suggested that selling ads on jerseys could conservatively be worth $100 million a year, but momentum was halted as television networks expressed concern that they would pay huge rights fees, only to be ambushed by brands putting ads on jerseys that didn’t advertise on their air.

Recent discussions about ads on jerseys have involved the networks themselves. This weekend, players will wear a Kia logo on the upper left chest of the jersey. The spot was sold by Turner to Kia for the 2016 and 2017 All-Star Game as a stipulation in the network’s new TV deal with the league.

Like the Kia logo on this weekend’s uniforms, the proposal has the future logo that teams can sell on the upper left chest. The proposed size of the logo is 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

Players will share in the revenue generated as the money gained will be considered part of Basketball Related Income, which is then factored into the salary cap.

One possible issue would be if a major star has a big endorsement deal with a brand and a competitor pays to put its ad on that team’s jersey. Nike spokesmen already wear the league’s Adidas jerseys, but it’s a bit different if it’s another category.

This is not unprecedented, however. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is State Farm’s biggest spokesperson but is forced to give news conferences in front of an American Family Insurance banner because it’s the team’s official insurance provider.

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