NBA Owners Approve Jersey Advertising

(The Sports Xchange) - NBA owners approved a three-year pilot program to allow teams to sell a corporate logo on their jerseys, the league announced Friday.

The NBA Board of Governors gave the approval for the sale of jersey sponsorships beginning for 2017-18, which also will be the first season that Nike makes the uniforms after taking over from Adidas. The Nike swoosh will appear on every jersey.

The sponsorship patch will appear on the front left of the game jerseys opposite the Nike logo. Patches will measure approximately 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches and be adjusted to fit the dimensions of each sponsor's logo.

The NBA's 30 teams will be responsible for selling their own jersey sponsorships.

Commissioner Adam Silver has led the initiative for the ads.

"Jersey sponsorships provide deeper engagement with partners looking to build a unique association with our teams and the additional investment will help grow the game in exciting new ways," Silver said in a statement. "We're always thinking about innovative ways the NBA can remain competitive in a global marketplace, and we are excited to see the results of this three-year trial."

The sponsor patch will not appear on the retail versions of the player jerseys but teams will have the option to sell the jerseys with sponsor patches in their own retail outlets.

Sources told ESPN that the average team hopes to make $4-6 million per year from new partnerships, which would equal $120-180 million per year in new revenue. The money will be counted as basketball-related income and split with the players.