…starting next spring, MLS will be the first major team sports league in the U.S. to showcase ads where viewers can’t miss them: on the fronts of player jerseys.

Aside from Nascar, no major American sports league permits prominent advertising on team jerseys, though the practice has long been accepted in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The MLS deal allows clubs to sell their own jersey rights and keep a majority of the revenue, a marked change for the 11-year-old league, which in the past has conducted most of its business through a central office and pooled sponsorship dollars.

Bizarre to think of it, with their advertising spinning along the sides/bottoms of screens, that the major leagues hadn’t explored this before. Full story.