The Arizona Diamondbacks became the third team in Major League Baseball to sell advertising on its uniforms, agreeing to what the club termed a “multi-year” deal with Avnet, an electronics components distributor headquartered in Phoenix.
Players will wear black Avnet patches featuring the company’s logo on one jersey sleeve.
This will be the first season teams are allowed to sell ads on their jerseys after the league and players came to terms on the idea in last year’s collective bargaining agreement. Clubs can sell advertising space on jerseys and helmets.
“I think that jersey patches, advertisements on jerseys, are a reality of life in professional sports,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last year. “That’s a revenue source that is significant enough that it is really impossible for the sport to ignore over the long haul. I think that’s the truth.”
According to a press release issued by the team, Avnet has more than 15,000 employees around the world, including 1,300 in Arizona.
The patches will be placed on each player’s forward-facing shoulder. For example, left-handed hitters will have patches on their right shoulders and right-handed pitchers will have them on their left shoulders.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks to sell advertising space on jersey sleeves