The Toronto Star ran an interesting piece.
Now a group of influential NHL players that includes New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, Dallas’s Marty Turco, Detroit’s Dominik Hasek and Edmonton’s Dwayne Roloson want the league’s – and inevitably the Leafs’ – uniforms altered again. [S]everal NHL goalies have asked the league and its players union to consider starting a so-called Goaltender’s Club. Revenue-generating initiatives for the club could include placing a corporate logo on the jerseys of the league’s 60-odd goalies.
That’s right. A corporate logo on the jerseys.
I can’t say that I was surprised to hear that. The NHL is a league in trouble, and it would be foolish to overlook a revenue stream so obvious.
The players are working alongside prominent hockey marketer Brad Robins and Edmonton player agent Ritch Winter. Robins and Winter estimate on-uniform ads might generate upwards of $30 million a season for the NHL.
That’s a million bucks. A mllion bucks a team, ya hear?
One proposal shows Roloson’s blue and orange team jersey with a small Rexall logo above the Oilers symbol. The drugstore chain’s symbol could also be “sublimated (dyed right into the fabric) on a portion of the sleeve.”
Obviously, the people behind the proposal also point to the European leagues where advertising has almost always been a part of the jersey design. Like this.
First they take the goalies, and then they take the defensemen and forwards. Prediction: in 2020, the NHL coaches will have advertising on the collars of their shirts.