Neuman provided a “three to five” or “four to six” year window where there could be something “more tangible” from the NFL, while Nelson said he’d estimate that the MLB and the NHL will adopt some semblance of a patch offering in the next two to four years, with the NFL closely behind “maybe in the next five to seven years.”
“There’s no sense of urgency but eventually the dollars will be big enough that the NFL will sell patches,” said Nelson, adding that he could see the league being more receptive to jersey ads once they see a more robust sample size of patch deals across the other leagues and the dollars that follow.
When the NFL actually commits to some jersey patch initiative, there will be a number of key issues to address. Determining the revenue split between owners and players through collective bargaining will be one negotiating hurdle. The current CBA expires following the 2020 season and while there’s been broader on-and-off labor discussions this summer, the jersey patch conversation hasn’t taken precedence yet, said people interviewed for this story.
The NFL didn’t respond to a request for comment, while the NFL Players Association declined to comment.
Additional questions surrounding the patch include jersey location, its size, which categories will be available for marketers to sell, whether brands will be forced to execute a media buy if they also want to secure a jersey partnership and who will sell the inventory.
Seth Frankenthal, vice president of corporate partnerships at Santa Monica, Calif.-based sponsorship sales and consulting firm Premier Partnerships, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the NFL sold a league-wide sponsorship, rather than all 32 teams selling their own patch.
By doing so, the NFL could arguably eliminate any potential future conflict between a home team’s naming rights sponsor and the visiting team’s patch partner, a scenario that is not yet believed to have emerged with the NBA in its first two full seasons after offering the new piece of inventory.
Frankenthal pointed in particular to MLB’s most recent two-game London series this summer -- where the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees wore Biofreeze ads on their jersey sleeves -- along with other ancillary games outside of the United States when players have donned patches as a potential testing ground for the NFL, which is scheduling more and more games across the pond.
“Maybe the NFL’s foray into the patches could be the London games,” he said.
ncG1vNJzZmiooqR7rrvRp6Cnn5Oku7TBy61lnKedZK6zwMico56rX5mytLzIrZxmppahwG6vwK6roqeeYsCxu82spqurmJ69brHXnpqsZaOWxm61zWaemqWVYremvtKesGaokamwqbHSZpirnV2eu6bCyK2Ym6SV