SEATTLE (May, 15, 2015) Jeff Gordon, Jr. is pictured at right modeling the new uniforms for the Frito-Lay Pepsi-Hawks.Gordon Jr., the Pepsi-Hawks starting quarterback, and the son of the ledgedary NASCAR driver known as "the Rainbow Warrior", won his first Superbowl when the team was still known as the Seattle Seahawks, and then added two more championships after The Frito-Lay Corporation bought exclusive naming rights to the franchise, and changed the team name.
The NFL followed the lead of the NBA, which started allowing corporate logos on their game uniforms 10 years ago in 2005. Since then, several teams have sold out their franchises to corporate sponsorships, to allow for additional revenue streams, which promise to maintain single game ticket prices at or around the $1,000.00 level.
Al Davis, standing under the team's signature "Just Whizz Baby" sign said, "so many of our players were actually using the product that when approached me about exclusive naming rights to the former Raiders franchise, it was a no brainer!" Davis' Whizzenators won the AFC Viagra division last season, but suffered a quick exit from the playoffs at the hands of the Duracell Chargers.
While it's taken most fans some time to get used to the new team and division names, as well as the goal posts being replaced by giant Golden Arches, coporate sponsorships has shown no indication of cheapening the game.
Says coach Mike Martz, "I'll admit they were a little uneasy when the makers of KY Jelly took over the former Rams franchise, but now our fans can be heard at every game enthusiatically chanting 'Give it to the tailback, give it to the tailback, and stuff that puppy in our endzone!'"
As you can see, corporate sponsorships have certainly made covering the NFL much more entertaining!
LOL, very funny, you should write a book, or a blog or something... Just Whizz Baby, yeah.
ReplyDeletePosted by Josh from SC
Actually, I posted this so we could start a dialogue on how folks feel about the possiblity of sponsorships on the uniforms.
ReplyDeleteI for one am against it, as it brings the sponsors into the game itself, and will cause all kinds of conflicts, like if a player has a deal with McDonalds but the team requires him to wear a Burger King logo. (re: the Reebok/Nike fiasco with the Olympic Dream Team)
Put a sponsor's name on the stadium, the seats, the side boards, anywhere you want, but it doesn't belong inside the white lines.
Major League Baseball wanted to put Spiderman logos on the bases last year, and I hated the idea. Again, keep the commercialism off the playing surface.
Taking it to the extreme on the radio this morning, Mike and Mike this hypothocized if corporate names may replace city names, i.e. the Nike Knicks or the Nike Knicks of New York.
Frankly, I don't have too much of a problem with this either, since the City name doesn't really mean much anymore.
How many Seahawks are actually from Seattle? Do the Rams suck any worse in St. Louis than Los Angeles?
And after all, aren't the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Supersonics thinly veiled sponsored team names anyway?
With the way franchise tend to move around, I'm actually in favor of removing the city name all together, along with the geographical division designation.
I'd probably root for the Seahawks no matter where they played. Do Lakers fans care that there's really no Lakes in Los Angeles? Do the Mormons drive around on Sat. night looking for the hot Jazz clubs in Utah? Do the Rams suck as less in St. Louise?
Instead of East, West, North and South, the NFL should have taken a page out of Hockey's past and named their divisions for pioneers of the sport, i.e. the NFC Landry, Halas, Lombardi, and Grange divisions!
That way teams can move whereever they want, and you could maintain the same rivalries inside the divisions.
I don't agree to quite the extreme that your suggesting, I like the fact that the seahawks are indentified with Seattle. I like the fact that I can dislike the entire city of St. Louis because of the Rams and the Cardinals (I'm a Cubs fan too) But, I strongly agree that sponsors have no place in between the white lines. I don't have a problem with the naming of stadiums (although I liked Seahawks Stadium better than Qwest Field) but I do not want our uniforms looking like NASCAR.
ReplyDeletePosted by PaulieP
Spidermen on the basepaths? Would that include spider webs? I hate spiders. What if the players on base hate spiders too? Couldn't people get thrown out, cause their afraid of the spiders on the bases? That was a horrible idea? What if they're poisonous?
ReplyDeleteNow I wouldn't mind some more tasteful sponsorships, such as Vicoria Secret sponsoring the SeaGals. That'd be okay, 'cause I'm not afraid of half naked ladies (but it would cause a problem when the Ram's visit, making them uncomfortable and all).
Posted by check
NFL already has a Reebok thing, right? I am wearing my 37 Away today, it has a Reebok logo on the sleeve. And we know from Coach Nolan that he has to wear Reebok tuxedos on the sideline. Do they care what shoes the players wear? I don't think so, I think the players choose their own, the coach may care about the color, but the brand doesn't matter. So they could probably work that out, NFL and the NFLPA are pretty strong organizations.
ReplyDeleteI like the legend division names, but the west coast based teams would get stuck even worse on traveling.
Trivia: Baseballs Angels complete name is now The the angels angels of Anaheim. I love SoCal.
Posted by Josh from SC
LOL Check! By why stop at Victoria's Secret. How about Hugh Hefner sponsors the Seagals, or maybe Larry Flint!!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe on Tuesday we can take this to the fullest extreme, and see if guys can come up with their funniest Corporate Sponsored Team Names (i.e. the Houston Kotexans!)
or ideas for renaming the NFL divisions (i.e. NFC West = Patera Division)
I guess I don't have a problem with sponsors that make sense. I.E. Reebok makes the uniforms, so they should be able to have their logo on the jersey. Gatorade makes the cooler, so there's no reason not to have their name on the cooler. Beyond that, no go.
ReplyDeletePosted by PaulieP
Dear Paul Allen -
ReplyDeletePlease break off relations with the current supplier of the SeaGal uniforms, and start buying them from Fredricks of Hollywood or Victorias Secret.
Signed
A Fan Concerned About Related Corporate Sponsorships
lol
ReplyDeleteI hate Nascar, but Jeff Gordon has always been the guy i rooted for...
as for sponserships on uniforms...thats just stupid...wasnt it a year or two ago when baseball had Spiderman on one of their bases? uniforms are awesome because everyone has a different one...
sponsership is annoying...nascar has way too many stickers on their car...the most sponsership that should be in Baseball, Football, or Basketball is the typical Nike Check or Reebok logo
Although my 3 favorite teams of the main 3 sports are from Seattle...i cant emphasize enough how its just ironic more then a love for the city...Ive grown to love them all for completely different reasons...and the fact that Nirvana was started in Seattle (even though they were from Aberdeen)...its just all irony...i think its obvious why i want to move there now...everything ive always loved is there
PS: I just noticed Alba mentioned the Spiderman bases...i really thought i made a good observation for a minute there lol
good to have you back, ADP
ReplyDeletePosted by alba
alba, I am not sure if I like this post or not, not because it isn't creative, because it certainly is, not because it isn't funny, because it certainly is; but rather, because I am very worried that it may be prophetic.
ReplyDeleteEver since stadiums have been named after franchises and players have been told which shoes and which sideline caps and jackets etc... they have to wear, because they are officially endorsed by the NFL; I have feared that the NFL would turn into a place where, rather than rooting for teams because of the cities that they represent, we would be rooting for teams or against teams because they are sponsored by Pepsi or Petco or the "Original Whizzinator" etc...
I have been worried about this for a long time now, and your post has very humorously encapsulated my fears regarding this. Sports, which are indeed a reflection of society, have been gradually, little by little, eroding from the honorable ideals they once stood for, sportsmanship and loyalty and healthy competition, into something baser.
I realize that anyone with any sense can point out that greed has always been and will always be intrinsic to every human venture, however, at least with sports, we as fans were able to pretend that (and perhaps even delude ourselves into thinking that) there were other somewhat more honorable reasons that we choose to cheer for our favorite professional teams. I am old enough to remember a day when most teams drafted players, who they planned to keep throughout the length of that athletes career. Back then, it was quite common for the majority of a teams roster, to be comprised of players who that team had drafted and groomed and who had significant ties to the city in which they played. The advent of free agency, however, ended all that. It is now, the exception rather than the rule that we as fans are able to root for players whom we have come to know and love and who have spent their careers playing for the home team. We now are forced to root for jerseys, rather than both the jersey and the athlete, because one week we as fans may be booing and reviling a player from an opposing team, and the next we may be rooting for him because he is now on "our team". I know that professional sports has always been this way to a certain degree, there have always been trades and other player movement from franchise to franchise, but it was only to a certain degree.
To many people this may seem a trivial thing, but to me, it is another sign of the erosion of honor and loyalty within our society as a whole.
Am I making too much of this? Perhaps, but perhaps this interesting post of alba's design is a glimpse into the future rather than a flight of fancy, and someday we will have to explain to our children how it used to be that sports once meant something more than making more money for corporate America.