From the 2023 season, the San Diego Padres will wear the name of the technological company “Motorola” on the sleeves of their uniforms.
The American baseball breaks a taboo. From the next season some teams will have some advertising on their uniforms. This is totally something new on this sport. Their businesses deal is unpublished on the “Mayor Leagues” and is the start of a new trend.
For example, the NBA is currently winning more than 200 millions of dollars per year thanks to this sponsorship. This kind of deal is also arrive to NHL on this new 2023 season.
The bat symbol of Motorola will appear on the uniform sleeves of San Diego Padres, the first team on almost 120 years of history of the “Mayor Leagues” to sell an space on their uniform to a sponsor. The ad made official the last Tuesday.
The Dominican third baseman Manny Machado, one of the biggest leaders of Padres, was selected as model for announce this sponsorship, that can open new business horizons for the future on the “Mayor Leagues”.
Motorola, a company with headquarters on Chicago and one of the leaders in production with technological gadgets. They also will wear their name on some zones of Petco Park, the home of Padres. “Be part of the uniform of San Diego Padres represent a key milestone for the Motorola brand and we are really exciting to collaborate with Padres and the fans of baseball for an unprecedented agreement in the history of the Mayor Leagues” said Rudi Kalil, vice president and general manager of Motorola on North America.
The controversy is that the last least was not allowed to sell advertising spaces on the uniforms. However, this season they reach a deal and if the MLB thinks that is good idea, there are any problems. This change already allows franchises negotiate trade agreements, although this changes must enter from 2023 season.
In Europe they are with this trend from 50 years ago more less. However, on United States this habit started on 2007 with the MLS as main character. So they broke up with the traditional 15 years ago. In the case of NBA, they started with these advertising spaces from the 2017-2018 season. Also, it is estimated that this business generated a profit of 225 million for the NBA, a really good quantity of money for the league and franchises.