Ads on uniforms might just help patch holes in sports budgets

Except for soccer teams, American professional sports franchises have shied away from selling advertising space on their uniforms.

That's about to change now that the Phoenix Mercury women's basketball team will sport a corporate logo on the front of their jersey for the upcoming season. Other WNBA teams are expected to follow.

The Mercury's primary logo on home and away jerseys will be replaced with the logo for LifeLock, an identity theft protection company.

A company that protects identity is about to project a new identity onto the Phoenix jerseys.

Ironic maybe, but selling advertising space on uniforms is something sports franchises throughout the world have been doing for years. My daughter went to Spain during Easter break and returned with a replica soccer jersey of the Seville football club. Across the front of the shirt is a symbol for a gambling Web site.

Americans conditioned to believe that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas might find this objectionable. At least they might say they do.

Because the sport reflects a foreign outlook even in the U.S., Major League Soccer teams turned their jerseys into billboards from the beginning. It hasn't hurt anything, unless you think helping to keep soccer afloat is a crime.

It became big news this year when Manchester United, England's most famous soccer club, caught flak for wearing the AIG logo on the front of its shirts at a time when the insurance company needed a $150 billion federal bailout to avoid bankruptcy.

Perhaps the embarrassment turned the Man U jerseys a brighter shade of red. But the club likely cried all the way to the bank - Man U reportedly is making $19 million a year on the deal.

It's generally conceded that most American fans would object to their teams hanging a "This Space for Rent" sign on uniforms. But cars and drivers in Indy racing and NASCAR are festooned with advertising paint and patches and nobody seems to have a problem with that. NASCAR fans don't just identify with drivers; they are loyal to the drivers' sponsors.

Admittedly, it's hard to imagine the interlocking NY on the Yankees pinstripes being replaced with the Geico logo, but everything else about baseball - from the announcing of the lineups to each pitching change - comes with a price and is tied in with a sponsor. It would be a small step to slap an advertising patch on the uniforms - maybe starting with the sleeve.

The biggest, most profitable pro leagues, though, aren't the ones that could benefit most from selling jersey space.

At a time of great fiscal uncertainty at all levels of sports, shouldn't we re-evaluate our alleged aversion to corporate clutter on uniforms, especially as it applies to non-professional sports?

If it can help hold the line on student fees and season-ticket prices and enable schools to combat shrinking revenue while directing more money toward academics, why shouldn't college teams wear the names of national or local businesses on their uniforms?

This is wishful thinking, of course. NCAA officials, the hypocrites that they are, wouldn't allow it.

But if times and the marketplace are drastically changing, maybe our solutions to problems should, too.

Would it damage the integrity of amateur sports if high school teams were permitted to wear sponsor's names on their uniforms to help defray the cost of equipment and travel? No, it's not traditional. But neither is this recession. Can't rules and other prohibitions be relaxed to meet new challenges?

For decades, the youngest athletes, the Little Leaguers, have been playing with business logos on their uniforms. Anybody remember Chico's Bail Bonds from "The Bad News Bears"?

On the bigger sports stages, corporate logos would help with the bad news economy.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com