NEW YORK – Next season, Major League Baseball’s fields will see a new field.
The San Diego Padres became the first team to announce a deal for advertising on their uniforms, saying on Tuesday they would wear patches with a Motorola logo on the right sleeves of their jerseys.
The March 10 letter of intent for a new collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players’ association gave the 30 teams the right to sell patch advertising on uniforms and sticker advertising on helmets. The sides accepted a proposal by MLB on August 6, 2021 to amend a section of the Official Rules of Baseball that states, “No part of the uniform may contain any patches or designs that relate to commercial advertising.”
MLB’s proposal read: “Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of these Rules, a club may license third-party commercial sponsors the right to place their name, logos and/or trademarks on the jersey provided the patch or design is approved in advance by the Commissioner’s Office after consultation with the Players’ Association.”
MLB decided to start uniform ads with the 2023 season and said helmet ads might start with this year’s postseason.
“The iconic Motorola logo on our jersey aligns perfectly with our Padres brand,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a statement on Tuesday.
Baseball has had ads for special events in the past. For the inaugural series in Tokyo in 2000, the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs wore sleeve patches for insurance company AIU and helmet stickers for the AM/PM convenience store chain, according to uni-watch.com. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays had sleeve ads and helmet decals for Japanese electronics company Ricoh in 2004; the Oakland Athletics had Pepsi advertising on their sleeves and the Boston Red Sox EMC in 2008 when Ricoh was on the helmets of both teams; the Seattle Mariners had Boeing on their sleeves and Oakland Athletics had social app company Gloops in 2012 when Gloops was on both sleeves; and Oakland had MGM Resorts on its sleeves and Seattle had oil company Eneos in 2019, before helmet ads existed.
Eintracht Braunschweig, then in the Bundesliga, became the first German club with advertising in March 1973 as part of an agreement with Jägermeister.
Jersey promotion in the UK professional leagues began with Scotland’s Hibernian in the 1977/78 season and Bukta, a sportswear company, and expanded to English league pitches when Liverpool reached an agreement with Hitachi ahead of the 1979/80 season.
Juventus started shirt promotion in Serie A in 1979 under a deal with Ariston, and Real Madrid started with Zanussi in Spain’s La Liga in 1982, according to footballpink.net.
Major League Soccer became the first of the major North American leagues to allow shirt advertising in 2007. Real Salt Lake was the first company to announce a deal with supplement juice company XanGo.
Along with other North American leagues, the NBA began selling sponsor logos for the 2017-18 season. The NHL launched helmet advertising for the 2020-21 season and began jersey advertising this season.