During the 2019 season, the Houston Astros faced the Los Angeles Angels in a pair of regular-season games in Monterrey, Mexico.
Fans noticed something different when the teams were batting: advertising.
Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net explained why the helmets had an addition: the game was held outside the United States or Canada.
But fans in those two countries soon could see the ads on helmets as well as jerseys. According to the New York Times and SportsNet in Canada, Major League Baseball has brought up the idea of monetizing uniforms and helmets during labor discussions with the players union.
Creamer tweeted a photo of helmets from the 2019 series in Mexico, offering a glimpse of what possibly could be coming when players are batting.
There’s a MLB game outside Canada or the U.S. tonight which means they’re sticking ads on the uniforms again – the Astros and Angels are both wearing Ford logos on their batting helmets.
Caps have a 2019 MLB Mexico Series logo patch. pic.twitter.com/PoltAgbRU0— Chris Creamer (@sportslogosnet) May 4, 2019
As for advertising on uniforms, fans know the Nike swoosh is already on jerseys. But a sleeve patch, similar to the one players wore during Major League Baseball’s 150th season, could be the way the league places other ads.
Opinion: the MLB 150 patch looks like something from the TBS score bug circa 2015 and those old school patches guys wore in 1939 and 1969 — and the “health” patch they wore in 1942 — were way, way cooler. pic.twitter.com/zI7u81Y2Rp
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) February 12, 2019
In 2020, the Sports Business Journal reported Major League Baseball “sent requests for proposals to 10 or more sponsorship and marketing agencies, asking for input not only on pricing, value and suitability of a sleeve ad patch, but also for a batting helmet decal.”
Thus, it’s likely MLB has some idea of how much money could be gained by adding these revenue streams.
Whether or not the players union agrees to such a change should be known when a deal on a collective bargaining agreement is reached.
But the SPJ story said the players union also reached out to agencies to see what its percentage of revenue it could get from the ads.
“Insiders we spoke with,” the SPJ’s Terry Lefton wrote, “didn’t think uniform ads would be, er, uniform, until the 2022 season.”