ST. PETERSBURG — Turns out, the box score did not implode. Attendance did not spiral, and Bob Costas did not weep.
All in all, the introduction of advertising patches on the sleeves of Major League Baseball uniforms has gone off without a hitch. Oh, the Mets originally produced a logo in the color scheme of the rival Phillies but a team that paid Justin Verlander $64 million for 16 starts knows how to handle embarrassment.
It’s been a little more than a year since the small ads (no larger than 4x4) began showing up on MLB jerseys and darned if the patches aren’t becoming collector’s items on their own. Spend a little time on eBay and you can find the Guggenheim patch (Dodgers) for $14.74 or Quikrete (Braves) for $11.99.
They may not yet be ubiquitous, but they have blended in better than uniform purists feared.
Motorola in San Diego, T. Rowe Price in Baltimore, Avnet in Arizona. Some feel natural and some will have you scrambling to figure out what they are. Which, I suppose, is one of the attractions for advertisers.
Barely 15 months after they first began to appear, patches are now part of the landscape for 21 of the 30 MLB teams. They’re in Kansas City, they’re in Toronto, they’re even in Miami.
But they’re not in Tampa Bay. At least, not yet.
That may sound on point for a market that has struggled to provide league-average revenue streams, but the truth may be a little more complex.
The Rays, apparently, have had discussions with potential advertisers, but a resolution on the stadium situation will likely need to come first. It might be a little awkward to tout a new multi-year marketing partner if you’re not sure about your mailing address in 2028.
So how important might a deal be for Tampa Bay?
It’s certainly worth a veteran relief pitcher. Maybe a leadoff hitter or a new catcher.
That’s a simplistic way of viewing incoming revenue with outgoing payroll, but the comparison is not completely invalid. These logos have produced significant money for big-market teams and a small lifeline for others.
While no team has announced exact figures, there are reports the Yankees are getting $25 million annually for their deal with Starr Insurance. Boston’s deal with Mass Mutual runs for 10 years and is expected to bring in $17 to $18 million per season.
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Explore all your optionsThe Reds (Kroger) and Marlins (ADT) are on the low end of the spectrum at a reported $5 million per year, while analysts have suggested the average team can expect to bank between $8 to $10 million annually.
Where would the Rays fit in?
That’s hard to say because arrangements can go beyond simply the uniform patch. Baltimore’s deal, for instance, not only includes signage at Camden Yards but the team’s spring training stadium in Sarasota. (The Rays, by the way, have not yet sold the naming rights for their spring training site in Port Charlotte.) Part of the Yankees deal includes sponsorship of the team’s daily lineup announcement on social media. Other deals include between-innings promotional plans.
No team has combined a uniform patch with stadium naming rights, but that’s also not out of the realm of possibility.
Most of the current 21 sponsorship deals involve national corporations headquartered in a particular MLB city. Marathon Petroleum in Cleveland, or Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee. A handful are regional companies hoping to expand their footprint like Sheetz (Pirates), a convenience store chain, and Meijer (Tigers), a grocery store located mostly in Rust Belt states.
One of the drawbacks for the Rays is that Tampa Bay’s economy, at least historically, has been tourism dependent. The list of Fortune 500 companies (Publix, Jabil, Mosaic, Raymond James, Crown Holdings) in the market is relatively small compared to other major-league markets.
Avnet, an electronic and office equipment supplier, is one of 10 Fortune 500 companies in the Phoenix area. The Braves had nearly 20 Fortune 500 companies in the greater Atlanta area when they went looking for sponsors.
In a way, that disparity in corporate availability is one more example of how smaller-market franchises are at a disadvantage in baseball. Unlike the NFL’s revenue sharing program, the difference in local TV money and attendance can lead to a wide gulf in payroll for MLB franchises.
Kind of makes the idea of a robust deal for a uniform logo pretty critical for Tampa Bay, huh? And I would assume we’ll see something on a Rays jersey in the near future. It’s too valuable to ignore and, based on what we’ve seen so far, not a terrible affront to baseball tradition.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
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