When it comes to U.S. professional sports, fans simply aren’t used to seeing advertisements on the game-day uniforms.
The NBA and WNBA brought ads to the uniforms with the NBA going for small patches near the shoulders. But generally, the obtrusive, in-you-face jersey sponsors are more common in European soccer and certainly not in Major League Baseball.
But traditions are always going to change when there’s money to be made, and the new CBA opened the door for jersey sponsors for the 2023 MLB season. The San Diego Padres have already found a taker. And, oh, man that patch is something.
The Padres announced their partnership with Motorola on Tuesday, unveiling a video where Manny Machado and Blake Snell couldn’t look less excited to be a part of. At the end of the video, we saw that Motorola was getting a HUGE patch on the sleeve.