MLS Should Sell Out With Style

Major League Soccer announced that it will take after every other professional soccer league in the world and allow advertising on the front of jerseys for the 2007 season.

While the rest world sells the precious real estate on jersey fronts, no one uses the space for anything more than a brand name or logo. I think there is a huge opportunity there for an advertiser to do something creative such as a contextual tie in or campaign message. If you're going to sell out, do it with some style.

For example, QuickBooks could partner with the Kansas City Wizards to let soccer moms know that their tax wizard makes completing your family's taxes a breeze. OK, so that's a pretty cheesy example, but the opportunity to do something clever and generate plenty of publicity is there.

Hopefully MLS teams can get some clever sponsors to buy into this idea; otherwise they might have to resort to putting "Chico's Bail Bonds" on their jerseys.