Not only will we see the trend of sponsorships on jerseys continue and grow in 2017, we should also see the continued growth of professional sports teams buying e-sports teams and putting them under their organizational umbrella.
The first “big four” pro sports team in the US to announce a jersey sponsorship was the Philadelphia 76ers, who also became the first to buy an e-sports franchise. And to complete the corporate cross-pollination, the Delaware 87ers, the team’s D-League affiliate, will have their jerseys sponsored by Team Dignitas, which the Sixers own.
The Philadelphia 76ers development team, the @Sevens, will wear the logo of esports team @TeamDignitas, which they acquired, on its jerseys pic.twitter.com/Xhqq3RoEAx
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 30, 2016
That’s not the cleanest looking sponsorship ad ever placed on a jersey, but it shows that the Sixers are at the forefront of a couple of trends that figure to grow quite a bit in 2017.
And while you’re at it, you can make jokes about how the Sixers are at the forefront of these two trends and not doing much to improve their abysmal basketball product, but everyone needs to #TrustTheProcess here. Other NBA teams are going to be doing the same on both fronts in the future, so this is something we’re all going to have to get used to.
