Ever since the fall of 2006, when Major League Soccer first announced the new initiative, teams in the young league have been allowed to put advertisers’ brands on the front of their jerseys. While this was a new thing in the world of major sport in the United States, it brought MLS more in line with the rest of the world, especially the older, more established leagues. Now, with teams signing multimillion dollar deals with companies known, unknown, and occasionally reviled, the question no longer is "Will this work?" but rather "Why does any team not have a sponsor on their jersey?" Despite this, four teams remain without it. Some of the reasons vary by team, but some are universal.
First, the teams without sponsors are the New England Revolution, Kansas City Wizards, FC Dallas, and Colorado Rapids. Working backwards, the easiest team to explain the lack of jersey sponsor for is the Rapids. According to rumor, Colorado had a jersey sponsor all lined up before the season, but this agreement fell through at the last minute. The fact that the team removed the wordmark from the front of this year’s jerseys seems to support that, especially as the same thing happened when DC United eventually signed with Volkswagen. In their case, it does not seem to be from a lack of effort, but simply a deal not getting done yet.
No wordmark in 2009
For FC Dallas, this has been a year to forget in many ways. The team has been one of the worst in MLS on the field, and the attendance has been, to put it bluntly, pathetic. Many MLS fans, and specifically Dallas fans, point the finger for these troubles directly at the team’s front office, and this would seem to extend to the jersey sponsor issue. As a whole, the team seems to be profitable, due mainly to the number of youth fields surrounding Pizza Hut Park, so maybe the team feels less pressure to get a deal done, but it seems wasteful to go this long without one.
For the Kansas City Wizards, this season and next would seem to be a consolidation season. At the moment, the team is stuck playing in Community America Ballpark, a stadium made for baseball that only holds just over 10,000 spectators. On the positive side, they have a stadium on the way, on the site of the former Bannister Park Mall, and with a committed group of local owners who seem to be making headway as far as recognition for the team is concerned, the future looks bright. I would guess that as soon as they have their stadium ready, a sponsor for the jersey will closely follow.
Finally, you have the New England Revolution. For years this team has been among the top in MLS on the field, but the product’s off the field branding leaves much to be desired. To many, it seems that this team is being run as a write-off for the Kraft family, along with date filler for Gillette Field, so that they can support the main tenant, and the Kraft’s darling, the New England Patriots. It does not seem that making money on the Revolution is not the goal of the Krafts, and this attitude would explain the lack of sponsorship on the jersey.
None of the above is meant to mean that getting a sponsor on your jersey is easy. On the contrary, finding the right mix of company, money, and time will usually take quite a bit of effort. As it stands, currently, three teams in Major League Soccer have sponsors that are Multi-Level Marketing companies (Los Angeles Galaxy with Herbalife, Real Salt Lake with Xango, and the San Jose Earthquakes with Amway Global). Many teams, though, do not want to associate themselves with those companies. Along the same lines, MLS rules forbid teams from signing sponsors that are gambling related or hard liquor, further restricting the teams from companies that have been proven to be quite popular in Europe (for examples, see Sevilla FC, Blackburn Rovers, and West Ham United). As Don Garber said at the time of the announcement, "We don’t want the local bail bonds company on the front of the Columbus Crew jersey."
This point remains valid, but the problem is that those are the sorts of businesses that are willing to pay more money to be attached to something more mainstream. Most of the time, teams could get more money for shorter deals, but naturally, they want longer deals so they can lock in a revenue stream for several years to come. Finally, the teams cannot sign such deals with competitors of those companies that sponsor the league, as that would water down the message the league is sending. With all these complicating factors, it is easy to see why the Rapids deal fell through, and why certain teams do not even seem to be trying to get jersey sponsors.
The methods of attracting viable sponsorship have varied a great deal between the various teams that do have sponsors. In the cases of DC United and Columbus Crew, companies have decided to become league sponsors, but have added a team level sponsorship as well. Other teams, such as the Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders, signed sponsors that are not league sponsors at this time, but are mainstream companies that everybody recognizes. Houston is a bit different, as they pulled a much more local company than did the rest of the league. Every company feels differently about how their brand can be best represented in MLS, provided they have interest in the league to begin with. They could sign up to be a league sponsor, and have their names on the ad boards along with commercials during telecasts, or they can sign with an individual team.
The most extreme example of this phenomenon is the New York Red Bulls, who had the energy drink buy the entire team and the new stadium that is being built in order to get their logo splashed across the jersey. A popular route is to do a combination of both, a la Glidden and Volkswagen, and the most likely jersey sponsorship I believe that will happen next year is Panasonic appearing on the jerseys of Philadelphia Union. They are already big sponsors of the Chester Stadium, along with being MLS sponsors, so that would seem the logical next step.
Having front of jersey sponsorship available has given the league’s finances a great shot in the arm, even if certain groups of fans have complained about the commercialization of the league. In its fourteenth season, the league seems to have moved ever closer to cementing their place in the American sports landscape, and the money from this has been a large reason why. As the league moves forward, and the salary cap grows, teams will no longer be able to afford not having a jersey sponsor, and the sooner those four teams can get one, the better off the league as a whole will be.
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