The NBA Development League’s Florida Flame will open the season Nov. 25 with advertising on the hardwood playing surface at its Germain Arena home near Fort Myers.
Century 21 Sunbelt Realty, a sponsor of the Flame’s inaugural season last year, has upgraded to a presenting sponsorship, which will include two paid logos on the playing surface, a first for the NBA’s minor league, which is tipping off its fifth season.
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| Smush Parker and the Florida Flame will drive on a court with advertising this year. |
Ads on the field of play are commonplace in hockey, and some of the NFL’s biggest sponsorship deals are the ones that leverage its sidelines, as in the case of Motorola’s headsets or Gatorade’s orange coolers. However, sponsored logos on basketball playing surfaces have generally been restricted to those brands associated with the arena’s naming rights.
So now the D-League is opening up the hardwood to new sponsorship deals, and league president Phil Evans said he hoped for several teams to have similar deals before the season opens.
“This league has always been a lab for the NBA to develop players, coaches and staff,” Evans said. “This is just another thing we’re trying out.”
He would not reveal the terms of the deal. The league’s teams also have direct alignment with NBA clubs for the first time: The Flame is affiliated with the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic.
The specific size of the signage hasn’t been finalized. Evans said it will be approximately the same size as the logos of an arena’s title sponsor.
With scant D-League TV coverage, the deal is designed to add in-arena exposure. Century 21 Sunbelt Realty also gets seatbacks, rotational signs and branding on the arena’s indoor blimp and in a children’s play area.
The NBA is very protective of its brand. So while this is not a marketing asset the NBA would likely sell without considerable debate and without consulting its TV rights holders, the question must be asked: Will on-court signage be coming to the big league anytime soon?
“You’ll have to ask them,” Evans said. “Maybe the WNBA is next.”
