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David Stern called it a groundbreaking day, and he was right. You can start shoveling dirt on the sanctity of NBA names.We always figured the Boston Celtics would be the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks would be the New York Knicks. The first crack in that assumption was announced Monday.
The Phoenix Mercury will wear LifeLock jerseys this season. To which 97 percent of you respond:
The who will do what?
Phoenix is a WNBA team, which means you probably don't care if the players didn't wear jerseys at all. I won't be so crass as to say that would actually help ratings, but you never know what the league will try in this economy.
For now it is sending jerseys back to the seamstress. "Phoenix" and "Mercury" will be replaced with "LifeLock," an identity theft protection company. Talk about irony.
"This deal serves as a blueprint for other associations of its kind with all our WNBA teams," Stern said.
If all goes well it's easy to imagine Stern getting up in a few years and dropping only one letter from that statement
The W.
Today the Phoenix Mercury. Tomorrow the Phoenix Suns?
"The rest of the world considers this business as usual and assumes this is the way professional sports team market," Suns president Rick Welts told the New York Times. "I'm sure some unenlightened 50-year-old white male sports talk radio host will think this is the sign of the apocalypse."
No, it's just a sign of the WNBA's desperation. The sign of the apocalypse will be when Chris Paul is introduced in a General Motors jersey. That's the day American sports can officially file for moral bankruptcy.
I'm not against corporate sponsorships, ads painted on outfield walls or NASCAR drivers being human billboards. We all cringed the first time we heard "Poulan Weed-Eater Bowl," but over time we've become conditioned to having names we grew up with changed to names of things we buy.
If Port-O-Let offered me $10 million a year to name my stadium after its toilets, I'd gladly hold my nose and take it. But a jersey is different. It bears the name of a city and people you represent. Replacing it with an erectile dysfunction pill is going too far.
How far?
"They do this in European ball all the time," said Rick Davis, LifeLock's CEO. "It's not a sellout."
America has a weird fascination with Europe, where 50-year-old while male sports talk radio hosts are much more hip. Our sports executives have long envied how Old Continent teams often go by corporate names.
Europeans also smoke too much, they don't use deodorant and the women have hairy underarms. Just because something is acceptable on one part of the globe doesn't mean we should do it.
Even in Europe do you think they could get away with renaming Manchester United? Talk about soccer riots. The owners would make zillions, but some things simply should not be for sale.
That's not to compare Real Madrid to the Detroit Shock. The Spaniards didn't even make the WNBA playoffs last year. Detroit won the Mrs. Lawrence O'Brien Trophy, or whatever it's called in the WNBA.
Like the rest of the league, the Shock still had to cut its roster from 13 to 11 players. Houston was once a WNBA dynasty and it folded. Times have never been good for the NBA's little sister, but they are turning downright dust bowl.
If Marlboro came along and offered $1 million, Phoenix's players would have cigarettes dangling from their mouths this season. Hardly anybody would cough, which is the real worry here.
For now college and pro teams have no ads on their jerseys besides whatever small logo the manufacturer sticks on. Well, MLS teams do but they don't count.
There will be no uproar over LifeLock because it's the WNBA. But the NBA owns the league, and that will encourage Stern and other power brokers to keep inching us down the slippery slope.
Major league teams wore advertising patches when they played in Japan. The Puerto Rican team wore "Best Buy" on its jerseys during the World Baseball Classic.
Baseball was going to put Spider-Man II ads on bases during the movie's three-day rollout. The reaction was so fierce that even Bud Selig came to his senses.
"I'm a traditionalist," he said. "The problem in sports marketing, particularly in baseball, is you're always walking a very sensitive line."
Yes, there is a line out there. You don't cross it when you plaster ads on race cars. You don't cross it when you auction off your stadium name.
You cross it when you give them the shirt off your back.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
All the more reason to ignore that joke of a league..
Agreed,would rather paint the house then watch six thousand butch-lesbos screaming in the stands.
The Lakers are the LAkers are the Lakers are the Land o Lakes,,,,WHAT?????????????????
I will take time to deconstruct your argument point by point just because.......
David Stern called it a groundbreaking day, and he was right. You can start shoveling dirt on the sanctity of NBA names. – I guess you opened with shock value in mind?
We always figured the Boston Celtics would be the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks would be the New York Knicks. The first crack in that assumption was announced Monday – While the two leagues are hardly coterminous, you can be forgiven for thinking that the economics’ that applies to the WNBA is relevant to the NBA but not for the sin of using the Boston Celtic and New York Knicks, two of the league’s most profitable teams as your starting example. But then you were trying to stretch a size S pant over a size XL butt, so I guess you had to go there. .
Phoenix is a WNBA team, which means you probably don't care if the players didn't wear jerseys at all. I won't be so crass as to say that would actually help ratings, but you never know what the league will try in this economy – Do I detect a whiff of misogyny in that statement somewhere or is it just the idiot in you creeping out from under your key board. .
For now it is sending jerseys back to the seamstress. "Phoenix" and "Mercury" will be replaced with "LifeLock," an identity theft protection company. Talk about irony. – I am sure you meant to say something here, only I am not sure the heck it was.
"This deal serves as a blueprint for other associations of its kind with all our WNBA teams," Stern said. – “WNBA teams” Stern said. The same WNBA so desperate for revenue, owners are walking away from their investments just to avoid taking in more water.
If all goes well it's easy to imagine Stern getting up in a few years and dropping only one letter from that statement, The W. – Almost clever but highly predictable. Were that the case, he would have done that years ago or you think David Stern just realized that European teams wear sponsor’s names on the front of the Jerseys?
Today the Phoenix Mercury. Tomorrow the Phoenix Suns? – Not that there is anything wrong with that, The PHX that they wear now is does not spell Phoenix nor Suns.
"The rest of the world considers this business as usual and assumes this is the way professional sports team market," Suns president Rick Welts told the New York Times. "I'm sure some unenlightened 50-year-old white male sports talk radio host will think this is the sign of the apocalypse" – Or “AOL Fanhouse blogger”.
No, it's just a sign of the WNBA's desperation. The sign of the apocalypse will be when Chris Paul is introduced in a General Motors jersey. That's the day American sports can officially file for moral bankruptcy – What’ you have a problem with Chris Paul supporting GM? What is so apocalyptic about General Motors, American Sports or Moral Bankruptcy? Where is this coming from? There is virtually no correlation between Morality and American Sports, and as far as the Bankruptcy is concerned I am guessing you threw that in there because you had mentioned GM and figured a bankrupt line would not be out of place.
I'm not against corporate sponsorships, ads painted on outfield walls or NASCAR drivers being human billboards. We all cringed the first time we heard "Poulan Weed-Eater Bowl," but over time we've become conditioned to having names we grew up with changed to names of things we buy. – Contradictions galore, you go used to it but what? You will never get used to it in the WNBA?
If Port-O-Let offered me $10 million a year to name my stadium after its toilets, I'd gladly hold my nose and take it. But a jersey is different. It bears the name of a city and people you represent. Replacing it with an erectile dysfunction pill is going too far – You have no problem putting the ED name on say Wrigley Fields? Do you see the slippery slope you have just engineered for your self?
"They do this in European ball all the time," said Rick Davis, LifeLock's CEO. "It's not a sellout." – Well is it? Or you think you are somehow better than Europeans or that you are more passionate about your sports than they are
America has a weird fascination with Europe, where 50-year-old while male sports talk radio hosts are much more hip. Our sports executives have long envied how Old Continent teams often go by corporate names. – I bet you do not have proof of any of this but you have just written that statement like it is a fact without any qualifiers.
Europeans also smoke too much, they don't use deodorant and the women have hairy underarms. – (You are the very Definition Of “The Ugly American”, ignorant and arrogant at the same time.) Just because something is acceptable on one part of the globe doesn't mean we should do it – (I am guessing you are not a fan of Globalization, are you?).
Even in Europe do you think they could get away with renaming Manchester United? Talk about soccer riots. The owners would make zillions, but some things simply should not be for sale. – You know, I am pretty sure that the Phoenix Mercury is still the Phoenix Mercury not the Phoenix LifeLock’s.
That's not to compare Real Madrid to the Detroit Shock. The Spaniards didn't even make the WNBA playoffs last year. Detroit won the Mrs. Lawrence O'Brien Trophy, or whatever it's called in the WNBA. – At this point I am guessing you were polishing off the rest of the Vodka from last night and did not proof read in the morning to see if the sentence made any sense. Not to compare Real Madrid to the Detroit Shock? I don’t see where you compared anything to anything else, not even one as ridiculous as the one you mentioned.
Like the rest of the league, the Shock still had to cut its roster from 13 to 11 players. Houston was once a WNBA dynasty and it folded. Times have never been good for the NBA's little sister, but they are turning downright dust bowl. – All good arguments why they should take the money and run; don’t you agree?
If Marlboro came along and offered $1 million, Phoenix's players would have cigarettes dangling from their mouths this season – Heck, they will even take official smoke breaks rather than time outs -Hardly anybody would cough, which is the real worry here – What do you mean, why should they be coughing? Are they, we, us sick? .
For now college and pro teams have no ads on their jerseys besides whatever small logo the manufacturer sticks on. Well, MLS teams do but they don't count. – Yes, they are not professionals over there anyway, they get paid in chicken fingers.
There will be no uproar over LifeLock because it's the WNBA. But the NBA owns the league, and that will encourage Stern and other power brokers to keep inching us down the slippery slope – Somehow I don’t think you understand that the NBA is a $3 billion a year business and the WNBA probably does not gross $50 million a year.
Major league teams wore advertising patches when they played in Japan. The Puerto Rican team wore "Best Buy" on its jerseys during the World Baseball Classic. – Once again contradicting the main thrust of your argument, don’t you think?
This is incredibly xenophobic, insulting, and presumptuous. Sports teams are businesses that need to explore and consider every revenue system in order to stay competitive. Even at its most basic, a team's jersey is still an advertisement for that team and its merchandise.
This is a Manchester United jersey:
http://www.ec2sport.com/syssite/home/shop/1/pictures/productsimg/small/16.jpg
It says neither Manchester nor United on it, and if you had done an appropriate amount of research, you would know this. In fact, the sponsor buying space on their jerseys is not only American, but now owned by the US government.
What is being sold here is not the identity of the team (for example, with the New York Redbulls), but of space on the jersey. No one has auctioned off a team name with a long history -- if we still have the LA Lakers and Utah Jazz, this is unlikely to change.
Your argument implies corruption in European clubs and insists that they do not value winning and competition. This is about as large of an insult you can give an athlete or a teams' fans.
There is surely an argument against selling advertising space on (W)NBA jerseys, and it's based around the cultural differences between America and the rest of the world. That argument is not served by mocking Europeans or holding up xenophobia and reactionary ignorance as "moral."
Oh, please. Selling out is a tradition in sports. Advertisement on jerseys just represents the latest way teams and leagues sell out.
It may be a tradition, but so was slavery. Doesn't make it right.
Hey WHITLESS stop trying to be funny. MORAL BANKRUPTCY how do write sports when you haven't followed BASEBALL for the last 20 years. I thought all white over 50 males followed the prostitute of all sports.
"I'm sure some unenlightened 50-year-old white male sports talk radio host will think this is the sign of the apocalypse."
Wow, as opposed to a 50 year old die hard black or hispanic male? What a stupid comment, what on earth does a persons race have to do with their opinion regarding a team wearing a company logo? Oh, Mr Whitley, using General Motors as an example of a team logo for the Hornets wasn't a great choice, considering they just filed for bankruptcy.
I can see it on race cars and driver uniforms because they pay the owners money to be able to race them cars, but I can't see it on stadiums (even Nacsar tracks) or players uniforms (baseball, basketball, etc), to me that is over the line. These companies didn't build those stadiums, tax payers money did and now the greedy team owners are selling the stadium names and team names looks like.