The Arizona Diamondbacks are making a big play in the advertising game. The Major League Baseball (MLB) team recently announced a multi-year deal with Avnet, an electronics components distributor headquartered in Phoenix, to feature their logo on the team’s jerseys.
The agreement makes the Diamondbacks the third MLB team to sell advertising space on their jerseys, following the trend set by the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. According to the team’s press release, Avnet has over 15,000 employees worldwide, including 1,300 in Arizona.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has noted that jersey patches and advertisements on jerseys are a reality of life in professional sports. “That’s a revenue source that is significant enough that it is really impossible for the sport to ignore over the long haul,” Manfred stated last year.
The Avnet patches will be placed on each player’s forward-facing shoulder, with left-handed hitters wearing them on their right shoulders and right-handed pitchers wearing them on their left shoulders.
