"$155 million in revenue..."
The English Premier league soccer league earns a reported $155 million in revenue a year from corporate partnership/ad space on uniforms. $155 million buys A LOT of soccer balls. Yeah, it's Europe and it's been going on a long time. But, holy buckets an extra $155 million in revenue is nothing to be sniffed at. That's $149,999,500 more than I have in my bank account.
As the NBA is headed toward a possible (probable) lockout and 'money' is a key reason, it's not insane to think that the NBA is headed in the same direction as the English Premier League. It makes total sense from a fiscal standpoint, whether it ruins the integrity of the league or not. The truth is, the NBA itself is a whore for corporate sponsorship at every turn even without having sponsor patches on their jerseys. Everything from promotional nights, pre/postgame shows, highlight reels, team functions to the names of the vast majority of arenas have corporate sponsorship to generate extra revenue. Why not adopt the English Premier League's jersey ad space cash cow? Is the game less meaningful if there is ad space on the unis? No. Might the game excel in a lot of different areas with the injection of an extra $155 million or more? YES! Maybe take it a step further and just have the corporate partner name be the team name. That's gotta be worth some serious dough. So for fun, let's look at teams' new names based on local corporate sponsorship interests.
The Atlanta Coca-Cola (or Cokes which would be coached by Michael Ray Richardson)
The Boston Staples (that should sufficiently piss off Laker fans)
The Charlotte Red Ventures (a step up from the Bobcats, honestly)
The Chicago Boeings (to think, Air Jordan could've been on the Boeings!)
The Cleveland Goodyears (now that LeBron is gone, the good years are behind them...see what I did there?)
The Dallas Texas Energy (can't really call them the Dallas Cubans)
The Denver Qwest (works with their current Qwest to keep Carmelo)
The Detroit General Motors (once dominant team with a once dominant company name)
The Golden State Gaps (The Golden State Craigslists finished a close second)
The Houston Exxon-Mobils (because Yao needs to refuel)
The Indiana Consecos (Personally, I like the Indiana Steak n Shakes)
The Los Angeles Guess (obviously the Clippers...err former Clippers in this case)
The Los Angeles Walt Disneys (the former Lakers; they win a lot of titles so why not name them after the theme park they frequent?)
The Memphis FedEx (they can ship their championship aspirations away more efficiently)
The Miami Burger Kings (insert LeBron James joke here)
The Milwaukee Harley-Davidsons (The Milwaukee Manpower was runner up. Conclusion: Milwaukee would have a badass name regardless)
The Minnesota Targets (if only anybody targeted them)
The New Jersey ONEXIM (Mikhail Prokhorov does own them after all)
The New Orleans Tidewater (too soon?)
The New York...ugh...good God...too many options
The Oklahoma City QuikTrips (this should really be the Seattle Starbucks)
The Orlando Air(Trans) (Dwight Howard can fly and so could Vince Carter...if it's a contract year)
The Philadelphia Comcasts (no joke for this name...which is weird since this team is laughable)
The Phoenix Go Daddy (this team GOES, DADDY! Don't worry, no intentions of quitting my day job)
The Portland Microsoft (short for MicrofracturesSoftTeam)
The Sacramento Intel (you know the 'ding, ding-ding-ding-ding' noise Intel uses? It should remind you of the noise the rim makes as Sacramento bricks a lot of shots)
The San Antonio Valeros (really grasping at straws for a San Antonio sponsor but this name sounds cool. Small market basketball ladies and gents!)
The Toronto Fairmonts (please tell me somebody else is a Jiminy Glick fan)
The Utah Million Airs (much more fun than the Utah Mormons)
The Washington Posts (great basketball team name; if only their post players were as good at post play as Woodward and Bernstein were at reporting)
If think this corporate naming thing should happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment