San Francisco Giants CEO On Uniform Ads In MLB: 'I Think It Is Coming'

While attention in recent years has focused on the addition of paid advertisements to NBA uniforms, one Major League Baseball CEO says his team would support selling of ads on baseball uniforms and thinks other owners will jump on board.

During an interview with KNBR, San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer was asked about the possibility of MLB teams selling advertising space on uniforms.

"I would forecast that it is coming," Baer told KNBR. "I think it is coming."

Baer noted that current commissioner Bud Selig is against the idea of ads on the uniforms but that under new commissioner Rob Manfred, "there may be an evolution towards it."

When asked about ownership support for the idea, Baer said the Giants would support ads and then cut straight to the most important point noting it is ultimately about money and could be an alternative to raising ticket prices.

"It's new revenue, potentially," said Baer. "This is new revenue. And I think there is always ownership support for new revenue, right? And, I think that also, quite frankly, we are, owners, very cognizant of ticket prices ... [and] this is a better alternative than continuous ticket price increases across the board to fund operations."

As of now, MLB uniforms are completely devoid of logos. Even Majestic, the manufacturer of MLB uniforms does not have a logo on the uniforms, something that has led to confusion because of the prominent display of the Nike swoosh on MLB undershirts.

However, in 2004, when the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays played regular season games in Tokyo, the league did include advertisement patches to the sleeves and helmets for the series.

This style of advertising is already seen in Japanese professional baseball and may soon be seen in back in North America.