In discussing naming rights in another thread, I thought of this question. Why does DC not have a sponsor on their jersey anymore? It was MasterCard for a couple of years, but by the time I moved here in 2000, nothing. I think they are on Colorado now. Was this a league or team (or sponsor) decision? Thx, Jay!
MasterCard no longer is a league sponsor, but I don't know why DC doesn't have a shirt sponsor.... I guess it didn't want to be sponsored by "Mullets R Us"
Mullets R Us requires the mullet to be below shoulder level, our team isnt there anymore. Marco got it cut
Because of their early successes, MLS raised the uniform sponsorship costs for D.C. above other teams, I would assume they've normalized now, but this is the story I've been told. I suspect that someday we will once again have a sponsor. Of course, part of the issue with single entity is that in order to appear on DC's shirt they need to be a league affiliate.
Shirts that's ok, I prefer us to have non sponsored shirts...unless it was Krispe Kreme and instead of throwing Old Navy t-shirts into the stands they shot doughnuts...free Krispe Kreme half time doughnuts...yummy.
On a related topic, I wonder if American soccer fans are ready to accept their replica jerseys with their team sponsors on them. I always thought it was a bit odd that most soccer fans buy tons of foriegn jerseys (with all of their related sponsors) and yet the geniuses at MLS thought that we wouldnt want DC United shirts with Master Card etc. on them. I persoanlly want the same thing as what the players are wearing on the field. --Is there anyone out there that would prefer to have the shirts the way they currently are, even if our team has a sponsor on their jersey?
Which brings up the TRUE story that Viagra use went down by nearly 50% in England during the 2002 WC.
Sponsorship I've always liked how my English jerseys are only slightly modified from year-to-year, unless the sponsor changes. That way, everyone has to go out and get a new jersey every time the damned sponsor changes, or he/she is wearing last years shirt, which is a fashion issue. "Auto Glass was LAST years sponser, you loser. Go get a new shirt." Also, if the sponser knew that his/her logo would not only be worn by the players, but also most of the fans, that would increase the bang-for-the-buck of sponsoring a team. Finally; if the per-game sponsorship is only 10,000 bucks, each fan at a home game could give a mere $1 and the sponsor of D.C. United for that game could be "The Fans of D.C. United."
Re: Sponsorship Good luck finding 10,000 people that would admit to being a DC United fan at this point in time.
Re: Shirts Yeah, that'd be great. Then our team wouldn't even go down to the locker room at halftime.