Advertisements on jerseys are becoming more prevalent in the sports world.
This season marked the first time in the NBA that corporate sponsors would make their way onto jerseys. The Raptors will receive $5million per year from Sun Life for their logo to be featured on Raptors jerseys.
Over in Europe, top end hockey teams see their jerseys covered in ads. On a National level, we saw ads placed on the World Cup of Hockey jerseys to test out the idea in September of 2016.
Team Sweden has decided to incorporate ads in a pretty creative way: by putting stickers on the pads of goaltenders Jhonas Enroth, Magnus Hellberg and Linus Soderstrom instead of on their jerseys. Sweden will play its first game of the Karjala Cup on Wednesday. In an agreement with Head and Shoulders Swedish goaltenders will be sporting a customized sticker than features a soap bottle on the front of the goalie pads.
The stickers will be omitted during the Olympics and World Championships, as the IOC and IIHF has strict rules against sponsorship deals that aren’t officially affiliated with the organizing bodies.
Former NHL goaltender Mikael Tellqvist wasn’t pleased with the Swedish Hockey Federation selling out to the sponsor, saying that the ads compromise the message of what the Three Crowns stand for in an interview with Aftonbladet.
“Three Crowns are the people’s team. Focus on the Three Crowns on the chest. Now the focus is on something else, [like] everyone who has dandruff,” said former NHL goaltender Mikael Tellqvist. “If you have to advertise on the national [team uniform], I think there should be something that is genuine and that feels serious in some way.”
“You should hope that [Swedish Hockey Federation] get well paid and that the money goes for a good purpose, like hockey or youth hockey.”
It’s only inevitable that advertisements will continue to make its way into hockey as an extra source of revenue. Whether it’s in-game sponsors, ads on the boards or plexiglass, or stickers on goalie pads, they’re becoming more widespread.
Some international hockey federations don’t generate the type of revenue that club teams do, and even though it may take away of the authenticity, funding for some teams can be sparse. You can see the incentive for outside-of-the-box ways to create extra revenue streams
The real questions becomes, where is allthat money going, as Tellqvist alluded to? Is it helping grow the game at the grass roots levels, helping fund the expenses for the teams, or is it going into the pockets of rich executives?
Regardless, the new Head and Shoulder ads at least were designed in a cool, unique manner, and not just plopped right on a uniform. Product placement is a powerful tool, and the pads do look pretty rad with some of the colour schemes, so good on them for at least coming up with a different approach that deviates from the standard norm.
Would you be cool with ads being placed on your gear as opposed to jerseys if you were a Swedish goaltender?
One ‘tender does for sure.
