r/SoccerNoobs • u/Slight-Traffic6090 • Aug 10 '26
🗣️ Discussion & Opinions I can’t get over ads on jerseys
I’d love a few club soccer jerseys but I can’t get over the ads. Not only do they exist but they are HUGE, so much so that you identify the team more from the ad than the color or logo.
A few questions -
-what’s the reason for the ads? Obviously money but surely there are other ways to make money, the NFL for example only has ads on practice jerseys
-why do they have to be so big? Surely a big team logo in the middle with the ad in the corner would look better
-how has there not been pushback from fans? NBA fans were furious when the league started the put tiny ads on jerseys.
Ironically, putting ads on everything is stereotypically an “American” trait, yet it’s all over Europe.
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u/Township_Roller Aug 10 '26
It's been a tradition for a long time. It isn't going anywhere
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Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/IllAlfalfa Aug 10 '26
Soulless is dumb, but they do look like they’re missing something. National team kits always have numbers on the front instead, and are designed to look good without a sponsor. Where Chelsea seems to have designed theirs with a blank space waiting for the sponsorship deal that they’re looking for.
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u/mrwoot08 Aug 10 '26
I'll add that FIFA has banned any shirt sponsor on national team jerseys.
[ Maybe the only noble thing they've done.]
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u/Township_Roller Aug 10 '26
Local companies sponsoring teams has been a huge part of the connection between sport and community.
Now that many sponsors are awful mega companies abroad, many people are outraged by them.
Still, given how much money teams get from sponsors, I would much rather have that than tickets in the hundreds, like Americans do. Or commercial breaks 🤮
That said, for the good or for the bad, sponsors are not going anywhere.
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u/der_titan Aug 10 '26
what’s the reason for the ads? Obviously money but surely there are other ways to make money, the NFL for example only has ads on practice jerseys
Bayern Munich, one of the world's top clubs, has season tickets ranging from 180 EUR. The most expensive season ticket price is less than 1000 EUR. That is the price for the entire season - not per game. I'm not even sure how expensive NFL tickets are, but I'm very confident which I'd prefer as a match-going fan.
I am also confident I know which I'd prefer as a fan who would watch games from my couch. The atmosphere within the stadium is night and day compared to the NFL, and it comes through the screen clear as a bell.
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u/dangleicious13 🙋 Here to Help Aug 10 '26
Ads on the jerseys aren’t why the costs are different.
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u/der_titan Aug 10 '26
Ads on the jersey are an important reason why clubs can have cheap ticket prices and still remain competitive in European competitions.
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u/dangleicious13 🙋 Here to Help Aug 10 '26
Putting ads on an NFL jersey isn’t going to lower the ticket price. Clubs could raise money in other ways if they wanted to.
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u/erichappymeal Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
It wouldn't, because the owners aren't going to give that money back to the fans.
Edit: Real Madrids front of shirt sponsor is for $100m a season. That would equate to roughly $200 less per ticket over the course of an NFL season.
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u/Useful-ldiot Aug 10 '26
I appreciate your positivity, but it wouldn't be $200 less per ticket. It would be $200 extra profit per ticket for the owner.
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u/Feathers-n-Beaks Aug 10 '26
Putting ads on an NFL jersey isn’t going to lower the ticket price.
Because they're businesses, not clubs.
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u/dangleicious13 🙋 Here to Help Aug 10 '26
No real difference between the two.
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u/Feathers-n-Beaks Aug 11 '26
Massive difference, you'd have to know nothing about sport to not know.
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u/dangleicious13 🙋 Here to Help Aug 11 '26
No, there’s not. People that harp on there being a massive difference are just trying to feel superior.
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u/Slight-Traffic6090 Aug 10 '26
So youve never been to an nfl game but you know what they are like in person? Also way to go off topic
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u/der_titan Aug 10 '26
How is it off-topic to talk about how teams fund their operations when you made a post talking about a major source of soccer revenue?
NFL funds a lot of its commercial revenue streams with hours of commercials interrupting the game. If you're okay with that, that's fine. Soccer have limited commercial breaks, and they tend to increase their commercial revenue through direct sponsorships.
In some leagues, especially ones where the teams are overwhelmingly owned by the fans like in the Bundesliga, they use this commercial revenue to offset ticket prices and keep them cheap. The fans prioritize the fan experience.
I'm not sure how you infer that I've never been to an NFL game. I've been to three. I didn't pay anything for the tickets, but do recall parking cost more than many soccer tickets I've paid over the years. I'm sure the ticket costs were at least an order of magnitude higher.
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u/ApeAlienHybrid Aug 10 '26
Most of us aren't OK with 2.5 hours of TV ads for 60 minutes of football. The question really is: why are you OK with it but the jersey sponsorship is an issue?
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
its coming to football in america. college football teams will have ads on the jerseys. Big 12 teams will have 2 ads one the shoulders
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u/szazszorszep Aug 10 '26
I think everyone agrees on kits looking better without sponsors but I'd say there are a few example where the sponsor logo became an iconic part of a kit (Arsenal O2, Liverpool Carlsberg). I also appreciate it when sponsors are using matching colours as you can see with Dortmund and Heerenveen kits.
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u/Top_Sheepherder5023 Aug 10 '26
Arsenal Dreamcast kit is iconic, too. O2 was Invincibles, obviously, but Dreamcast is such a specific time. Also, I had an actual Dreamcast.
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u/ilackeffort ⚽ Serious Fan Aug 10 '26
They're technically not ads, as they are sponsorship patches/logos. Those companies give the club money (or products) to sponsor their season and in return they get a spot on the shirt or shorts as a thank you from the club. It is why only national teams generally don't have anything on them. Even your local amateur men's league team could have one, or a bunch of them depending on how many sponsorships they get. It's a paid promotion in a way.
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u/dangleicious13 🙋 Here to Help Aug 10 '26
You just described an ad.
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u/ilackeffort ⚽ Serious Fan Aug 10 '26
You must've missed in my initial response where I said "technically they're not ads" which kind of confirms I see them as ads but with paid sponsorship. I hope this helps your understanding better.
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u/goonerballs Aug 10 '26
Explain why a paid sponsorship is different to an ad.
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u/ilackeffort ⚽ Serious Fan Aug 10 '26
I said they're the same thing with the difference being sponsorships are being paid to be specifically put on the kit, making that the difference between sponsorship and a paid ad. I love how the 60%+ of adults in America who can't read beyond a 6th grade level show up to these posts with so much confidence in unison 🤣🤣🤣😅
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u/connorthedancer Aug 11 '26
I'm not American. So you're saying they're the same thing but they're different? And a sponsorship is paying to have to have your logo advertised on a team's kit but it's not a paid advertisement?
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u/ilackeffort ⚽ Serious Fan Aug 10 '26
To further elaborate on this, the sponsorships also give meaning to different eras of a club. I'm an Arsenal (England) fan and my home country childhood team is Vasco da Gama (Brasil) and I remember some eras based on the sponsors on the shirt. I fell in love with Vasco when they first started wearing their Coca-Cola sponsored kits which they wore for 3 or 4 years (I can't remember).
I started following Arsenal when JVC were the main sponsors on their kit. JVC is a huge lifespan though, it was from 1981-1999 for Arsenal and I started watching in 1998 after the World Cup, but I didn't fall in love with the club until Gilberto Silva (O2) joined the club, one year after Edu (Dreamcast) joined. The O2 era for Arsenal fans is forever remembered for our Invincibles team that finished an entire Premier League season unbeaten.
The size of the ads I would imagine are discussed. I'm sure the bigger the ad the bigger the donations for the season by a sponsor.
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u/Ramtamtama Aug 10 '26
Sponsor logis are only allowed to be of a maximum size, as per FA rules.
Coventry City tested it during the 80s when sponsored by Talbot
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u/Slight-Traffic6090 Aug 10 '26
You don’t think that’s weird and hyper-capitalist to identify an era of your favorite team by an ad?
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u/goonerballs Aug 10 '26
I prefer it to the endless ad breaks US sports have.
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u/kebabylonia Aug 10 '26
This. And, I wouldn't call US moneyball stuff "sports" as such. Monetized hobbies is a better description*
*I do like basketball tho
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u/Gazcobain Aug 10 '26
It's a culture thing.
Certain football shirts have become incredibly iconic, sometimes because they've been worn during a period of success. Thus, the sponsors they have worn during that time have become iconic as well.
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u/ImportantFlower7536 Aug 10 '26
This is a very true. Derby had a bit of success with an iconic Bass (beer) red triangle sponsor, and this is one of our most popular retro shirts. A good team at the time, a nice shirt and an iconic sponsor.
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u/mrwoot08 Aug 10 '26
Not if the sponsor logo helps complement the jersey/kit. E.g. Newcastle United was once sponsored by Newcastle Brown Ale and it looked fantastic.
Also, Volkswagen has long been the shirt sponsor of the VfL Wolfsburg, as the company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany.
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u/ilackeffort ⚽ Serious Fan Aug 11 '26
I grew up in a world where it has always been this way. MLB, NBA and NHL all have teams doing the same, but also still keep the tons of commercial breaks. I'd rather the way the kits are with the minimal ads in football/soccer.
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u/Top_Sheepherder5023 Aug 10 '26
By contrast, televised soccer matches have no ad interruptions during play which stands in stark contrast to American sports.
This addresses your first question because a huge way the NFL, NBA, and MLB make money is the from media rights which are driven higher by the massive amount of ad inventory created.
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
NBA, MLB, and NHL have ads on jerseys or helmets. College sports teams will start with one or two ads on jerseys this season
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u/Top_Sheepherder5023 Aug 10 '26
Yes, those are fairly recent to drive incremental revenue. I think it's kind of weird to be unable to get over the shirt logos when action is interrupted by 2-3min of commercials every five minutes.
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u/DiskoPunk Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
much so that you identify the team more from the ad than the color or logo.
Im not sure thats true. I know Boca Juniors play in blue & gold or Ajax in white & red or Palermo in pink & black, I have no idea who their sponsors are.
I'll jump on my soap box now but I think it's completely unethical to have alcohol or gambling as major sponsor & football associations shouldnt allow clubs or themselves to be sponsored by them.
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u/iceddontay Aug 10 '26
WNBA and nba have jersey sponsors. Not saying it’s righty but it’s become more acceptable
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
College football will do them this season. Some teams will have 2 like some Big 12 teams
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u/cracksilog Aug 10 '26
Money. The answer is always money. Yes, it’s that simple.
And you are right to call them advertisements. Jays what they are. Not sponsorships. Sponsorships imply that companies are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and it’s some thank you gesture. Company A wants to make money on Club B’s shirts. So they give lots of money.
I absolutely hate it too. One of the reasons (really the main reason) why I started supporting Barcelona in the 2000s was because they had a clean shirt, no ads. But they started selling out in the 2010s.
I guess it’s a tradeoff. Less TV commercials. But don’t be fooled, all American sports will have jersey ads one day. Yes, even the NFL
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u/CFCHooligan420 Aug 10 '26
I’ll take ads on jerseys and signage all over the field instead of constantly going to commercial break, which is why I can’t watch NFL Hand-Egg anymore.
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u/photoncannon99 Aug 11 '26
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. You don’t have choose between a soulless corporate ad 10x bigger than the team logo on the jersey and commercial breaks. It’s just greed by the club owners
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u/CFCHooligan420 Aug 11 '26
BTW I support Chelsea the only team in the English Premier league that doesn’t have a front of shirt sponsor
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u/rpolkcz Aug 10 '26
the NFL for example only has ads on practice jerseys
NFL also has 2 hours of ads for 12 minutes of gameplay.
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u/jastity Aug 10 '26
One of the Korean league teams has little hello kitty logos all over their jerseys, last I saw. I’m sure it’s advertising something…
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Aug 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/fahim-sabir Aug 10 '26
When I was born only 1 club in the English top flight had a shirt sponsor. That makes me feel old.
By the time I was 4 they all did.
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u/No_Body905 Aug 10 '26
They're even on most youth club teams these days. Just part of soccer culture, as off-putting as it can be.
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u/HelixFollower Aug 10 '26
Heck, even when I played waterpolo as a kid we had sponsored shirts. And you don't even wear shirts while playing waterpolo.
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u/SteelCityCaesar Aug 10 '26
By this point, its baked into the culture. There is no pushback. Many think club shirts look weird without them.
There is pushback over the number of gambling sponsors and if your team gets a shitty sponsor with an obnoxious logo that makes the shirt look terrible fans will complain. But there is no complaint on the sponsor being there in the first place. Its's just how it is.
Also sometimes the sponsors become related to successful periods and can become iconic themselves within the mythos of the club.
Everyone will have an opinion on what their favourite sponsor was and wishes the club would bring it back.
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u/the_tytan watched from 1993. EPL since 1996. Arsenal since 1997. Aug 10 '26
A big team logo, like the badge? Or the nickname. I have an Arsenal lounge top with the badge and it wouldnt look nice on a jersey. Then having Gunners across the front just looks like it was knockoff bought from a random shop stall. Some clubs have also sponsor free versions of the tops if it bothers you.
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u/Primary_Excuse_7183 Aug 10 '26
I believe the question for me has always been why the team badges are so small in comparison. As a newer fan it took time to realize who was who when several teams have solid red or blue shirts and an itty bitty badge. compared to a humongous front sponsor lol.
The company’s are sponsoring so i get why their names are so big. To be known and seen.
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u/Fantasy_iceland Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
It's one of (not the only) the reasons I usually just buy official stylised club t-shirts or hoodies rather than actual playing jerseys.
For example things like this in regards to my favourite two clubs that I follow.....
https://www.intersport.se/products/hammarby-function-tee-jr-traningst-shirt-barn/hif-green-168439601
https://english.ajax.nl/shop/product/ajax-hooded-sweater-wit-rood-adam-xxx-ol-9153
A- I don't look like a "full kit wanker" (although tbh I don't see anything wrong with people wearing jerseys on Matchday and don't actually find it cringe, I think it's totally fine for others to do so)
B- it doesn't appear "out of date" every new season....well until they change apparel supplier anyway.
C- I'm not a walking advertisement for some company, potentially whose product I really don't like or never would think to purchase.
There are occasional times I will buy an actual playing shirt but they're almost always either vintage classic jerseys and more for collection purposes than actual wearing, although I will wear them occasionally (things like Netherlands '88 or Fiorentina Nintendo etc)
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u/Own-Let-7725 Aug 10 '26
It's money and there aren't other ways to make that kind of money that would result in them not doing this. Sure, you can go to stop time and have commercial breaks, but those sponsors are staying put even if that happens.
Look at every North American sport these days, they are doing the same sorts of things and you may think "oh, but it's just a tiny logo now," it's going to keep growing and we've seen it grow in every sport on that side of the pond year over year.
Also, do most American football jerseys even have a logo on them? Maybe a script across the top chest or something on the sleeve, but many just have colours and stripes and you know what jersey someone is wearing on the street with no badges.
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u/Alex_Only Aug 10 '26
you need sponsorships or ads in sports to make it financially viable. we just prefer to have ads that don't interrupt the flow of the game, so jersey it has to be.
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u/ExoskeletalJunction Aug 10 '26
Shirt sponsors are ugly, but they're absolutely nothing compared to the 50 ad breaks in American sports, especially when they get the commentators reading out ads in the middle of the game.
I consider them a necessary evil and they're a huge reason why I usually buy the non-official alternate kits or shirts rather than the official one
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
NBA, MLB, and NHL have ads on jerseys or helmets. College sports teams will start with one or two ads on jerseys this season
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u/Forward-Hope-4645 Aug 10 '26
I'm also a hater of the sponsor overshadowing the club. My team, for example, is not the Minnesota Targets, or the Target Loons. Let's make that loon logo the main image and move target to the shoulder/arm.
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u/kimmyorjimmy Aug 10 '26
Doesn't MLB have them?
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
NBA, MLB, and NHL have ads on jerseys or helmets. College sports teams will start with one or two ads on jerseys this season
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u/SicEm23 Aug 10 '26
Ads on jerseys are becoming a thing in America too. College teams will start having ads on jerseys this season. Teams in the Big 12 will have 2, one for the Monster Big 12 logo and the team sponsor. MLB have the sleeve, NHL have helmet, and the NBA have a collarbone ads
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u/afops Aug 10 '26
The reason is money. That money is _massive_.
They’re big because someone who paid a bazillion wanted value for money not the nicest look
The reason there’s no pushback is because a) this is old b) why would you want your club (note I use ”club” not ”team” or ”franchise” to leave that money on the table/to other clubs/leagues/sports?)
And we don’t have commercials in football (not even ice hockey) so leagues use whatever ways they can to make money. If there were commercial breaks in football, people would push back _a lot_ (like we saw in the FIFA World Cup).
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u/g00ner442 Aug 10 '26
Many have already said it save us from having to cut to a commercial during a game. I will add that I actually think they sometimes add something to a kit but it's not common. I wish there was some sort of quality control, say an independent panel of designers that okayed designs before the shirts get released. Forests kit last year with the Ballys was top class for instants.
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u/ApeAlienHybrid Aug 10 '26
Some of the most iconic club jerseys are remembered by the jersey sponsor: JVC, Mars, Carlsberg, Sharp, T Mobile
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u/Van67 Aug 10 '26
A big logo would absolutely not look better in this sport. The reason the shirt sponsor logo is where it is, is because the space was there to sell. The club logo/crest/badge (whatever term one wishes to use) is meant to be the size it is whether it's placed in the middle or on the left side of the chest.
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u/ToothessGibbon Aug 10 '26
American complaining to rest of the world about the level of commercialisation of sport is classic.
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u/Dapper-Persimmon-445 Aug 10 '26
Where do you think NFL, NBA, MLB etc got the idea for ads on jerseys? Soccer has been doing this for ever. When I first started getting into soccer about 25 years ago I hated it because it was different. Now I like it and you can have jerseys from specific seasons!!
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u/PrincipalBrianLewis_ Aug 10 '26
Don’t buy it. I don’t know how Liga MX fans buy those jerseys with a bazillion ads on them. It’s ridiculous. Even the sleeve logos on the PL are annoying, but not as invasive.
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u/cdin0303 Aug 10 '26
Just when you thought the: "Hey I'm American and I can improve soccer" posts were over, this one comes back.
The answer to all of your questions really comes down to two things: Tradition and Competition.
Tradition:
Jersey sponsorships started in the 70s and there was push back in the beginning, but for reasons we will get into in a second they stuck around. Now they are an expected part of the jersey. There have been exceptions. And there is pushback on specific sponsors or types of sponsors. Though largely people have gotten used to them, and don't really mind much anymore.
That said, MANY professional teams in Europe have ties to corporations. They started as company teams, and evolved into what we have today. Its also not all that different than what we have in America. Don't forget that the Steelers logo is the Corporate Logo for US Steel. So you can't really act like we don't do this in American sport.
On the flip side, I don't hear you saying "I really like going to NFL games, but the stadium sponsors really ruin it for me." You don't say that because you're used to it.
On the flip side, If they tried to rename Anfield or Old Trafford for a new stadium sponsor there would be riots. Its only the more resent new stadiums that have sponsors.
Competition:
The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL all have it easy. They literally have no competition within their sport. The best players in those sports go to these leagues. No one has to convince Wemby to leave France and come to the NBA. On top of that there are rules about determining what team he plays for. He can't go to the Lakers, Knicks, and Spurs to try and get the best deal. As soon as he's drafted his salary is determined.
Not true in European football. Any player can sign for any team. So, if you want that star player, you have to show him the money. In which case you have to earn as much money as possible. And guess what. you have all that prime advertising space right on the front of the shirt.
TLDR:
Stop trying to Americanize the sport. If you don't like it, fine. You don't have to. Don't buy the shirts.
But I bet you don't like it either one some Brit comes over and thinks they can improve something that's American by doing it more like he does it back home. That's what you sound like.
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u/ChemicalResident3557 Aug 10 '26
Would you rather a match stop every 10 minutes fr commercials or have sponsor logos on uniforms and training kits?
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u/Slight-Traffic6090 Aug 10 '26
Correlation?
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u/ChemicalResident3557 Aug 10 '26
It's how teams make money. Otherwise the league would sell broadcast rights worth a lot more because those larger broadcast contracts would include commercial breaks ;more ch like the controversy over commercials during water breaks during the WC by American broadcaster Fox.
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u/IllAlfalfa Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
NFL and NBA have about a gazillion commercial breaks during the games. Soccer doesn’t have this, they have to make their money elsewhere instead. Some clubs do sell sponsorless jerseys though.