Why Hasn’t Soccer Stooped To Putting Ads On The Pitch Yet?

In the footballing world, there are advertisements everywhere; soccer advertising is as ubiquitous as it is loud. 

Soccer was one of the first sports to embrace ads on uniforms. Pitches are rimmed with advertising boards in stadiums named after sponsors. Pre- and postgame interviews are littered with logos. Many leagues now allow ads on jersey sleeves. One club even turned its bench into a giant beer advertisement. 

There’s one area advertising has not invaded — the pitch itself.

In a world where soccer success is so often defined by financial success (unless you’re Manchester United in the last year), it’s stunning soccer clubs — or leagues — have yet to move in on the one area of football without a money maker. 

Purists would call this blasphemy and it certainly wouldn’t be a popular opinion among fans, but ads on the field of play aren’t unheard of.

American football fields are often plastered with all sorts of imagery, from team logos to the names of sponsors — not to mention those unsightly yard markers. 

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Baseball fields are typically clean of advertisements, though occasionally you’ll see some MLB logos on the bases. But just about every inch of the outfield walls is covered in an ad.

It's not uncommon to see sponsorship logos on basketball courts. 

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NASCAR is basically one big excuse to advertise and drink Budweiser.  

NHL rinks are some of the worse (best?) offenders, with logos on the ice and the boards all around.

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College soccer in the U.S. is no stranger to logos on the pitch. Many fields feature team or conference emblems. The final four often has the names of each team participating emblazoned on the pitch.

So why not ads on the soccer pitch? Soccer advertising needs to get with the times.

Sure, people would complain. But people complained about ads on jerseys and they eventually got over it. Maybe it would harm the aesthetics of the beautiful game, but who cares when your club can afford a new striker.

Teams who sell ads on the pitch first will have a financial advantage over those who don’t. While most leagues likely have rules restricting such actions, it wouldn’t be hard to grease a few palms and get those rules changed. Money talks.

Would this be detrimental to the sport? Hardly. There are so many ads elsewhere in the world of football, a few more on the pitch itself isn’t going to harm anyone. 

The soccer pitch is the last frontier for advertisers. Football clubs have sold out just about every other part of the game, so why stop there?