Baseball
Boston Red Sox Will Add Corporate Sponsor to Uniforms Despite Fans Concerns
By Dylan Vox

Jan 25, 2008

There has long been a ban on sponsorship and logos placed on Major League Baseball uniforms, but this week it was announced the famed Boston Red Sox might be crossing over that tabooed line. During the team opening series in Japan, the Sox will now be sporting EMC corp. logos on their jersey sleeves, which is causing quit a controversy with fans who have been supportive of keeping corporate sponsorship away from the beloved sport.  

EMC Corp., a data-storage company based in Hopkinton, Mass. has designed patches that will be added to the team and coach’s uniforms, which they are hoping, will help accelerate its drive into the lucrative Japanese tech market.  

Although ads are illegal in stateside competitions, there have been exceptions made in the past for games played over seas. In 2000, The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs wore uniform patches for AIU insurance when they played in Tokyo, and the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays also donned sponsorship logos in 2004, but this will be the first time that the Red Sox have succumbed to the corporate machine.  

Sox Marketing Executive Sam Kennedy explained in the Boston Herald, “It’s a groundbreaking deal. No corporations are allowed to have their logos on uniforms in the United States. It is very, very valuable from a corporate perspective to be branded on the players, on the content.”  

Sports journalist Matt Watson suggests that even though it is only a Japanese opening series, that it is a “slippery slope”, and baseball uniforms could soon end up like NASCAR uniforms covered with endorsements and sponsorship ads.  

In an post on AOL Fanhouse, Watson said the endorsement deal will earn over six figures for the team. "I know it's a special circumstance, but if they can draw that kind of dough, why wouldn't baseball owners eventually adopt this on a full-time basis?” Watson said.  

As of now, however, there are no plans to allow sponsorship patches on uniforms during games played in the United States.