Not that I miss them, but, at the end of last season I was something I had gotten used to. Needless to say, I remember being shocked when I realized they were gone. So what happened to them? Surely it wasn't the complaints of the fans that drove them away.
My guess is that along with the complaints of fans, MLS wasn't noticing the windfall sponsors desiring to flock their way. I'm sure the fact that we all had seen the same 6 Sierra Mist/Radio Shack/Honda/Budweiser ads there was no need to put us through all that again. Shirt sponsors!
I would definitely go for shirt sponsors. The USL has them and I definitely think Americans could handle it (NASCAR anybody?). I'd really prefer shirt sponsors to "FC Dallas" across the middle in big letters with the crest that says "FC Dallas" 2 inches away. This goes for most of the teams (I know LA does, I'm fairly sure RBNY doesn't).
He probably doesn't speak for all fans, but one of my friends is a REAL Eurosnob (I mean, he chose a random team Leicester City as his favorite just to act hardcore), and he said that he prefers White lettering sponsors to team logos/names, because ads gave jerseys "cred" or something like that. I guess it's kinda like how NASCAR fans love seeing sponsors all over their crew jackets.
RBNY has the sponsor logo on the front because it's considered part of the team badge, so it's acceptable under league shirt advertising rules.
Soccer's biggest (business-oriented) weakness. It just isn't designed for advertisers. It's *just* about the game.
I know. I like that uniform better than most of the others that are cluttered like I mentioned. FC Dallas and the LA Galaxy stand out to me. I do wish RBNY could figure out some way to not have the same two bulls & yellow circle (sun?) logo on both the jersey and the logo next to each other. The league needs to go with sponsors and crests or just lettering/logos on the front and throw the crest on an arm. Considering what the RBNY jerseys look like, it would be fine in my opinion if they kept the crest and used the Red Bull lettering.
I found it somewhat amusing that when I watched a little Mexican League soccer over the weekend, lo and behold they had side-by-side commercials. Is this their first year to have that? I don't remember seeing it last year. I got a chuckle out of that one.
Exactly what I was going to post. This thread should be closed before the soccer gods become angered, and side-by-side commercials come back.
Corporate logos on jerseys are fine. And side-by-side commercials were tolerable last year. Sadly, sometimes those Sierra Mist commercials are better than MLS games.
Next year, ESPN will be paying to show games. Wonder what they'll come up with to recoup their investment.