By the time MLS resumes after the All-Star break this July, most of its clubs will be wearing four distinct advertising patches on their jerseys. Front-of-chest sponsor. Sleeve sponsor. Back-of-collar sponsor. And the newest addition: a back-of-jersey placement that will sit between the shoulder blades, directly below the collar.
Four patches. On a single jersey. In a league that was, not that long ago, held up as the American circuit most likely to resist the full European commercialization of the kit.
How We Got Here
The trajectory is familiar to anyone who's watched this play out in the Premier League and across European football. It starts with one placement — the chest sponsor — which MLS clubs have had for years. Then a sleeve spot gets added, justified as a minor addition with significant revenue upside. Then the collar. Then the back. Each individual addition is defensible on its own terms. The cumulative effect is a jersey that reads more like a billboard than an athletic garment.
The revenue math is real. Shirt sponsorship deals at MLS's top clubs now reach eight figures annually. The back-of-jersey placement alone reportedly generates between $2-4 million per season for top-market clubs. For a league still building its infrastructure, that money matters.
The Design Problem
The visual problem with four patches is one of hierarchy and integrity. A well-designed jersey has a primary graphic element — the crest — and everything else is subordinate to it. One sponsor patch, if well-placed, can be absorbed into the design without destroying it. Four patches create competing focal points that no designer can fully reconcile.
Some clubs will handle this better than others. Teams with strong, bold crests and simple base designs will absorb the additional patches more gracefully than teams with complex, pattern-heavy templates. But there's no version of four advertising placements that improves a jersey. There's only varying degrees of compromise.
What It Means Going Forward
MLS's move to four placements will accelerate conversations in the NFL, NBA, and NHL about their own jersey advertising programs. The NBA already has the sleeve patch. The NFL has resisted advertising on game jerseys but not on practice and preseason gear. The NHL's situation is evolving. MLS normalizing four placements gives league commissioners in other sports a data point they didn't have before.
For those of us who care about what uniforms look like: this is a moment worth documenting. Not with outrage — that ship sailed — but with clear eyes about what's changing and what it means for the visual history of these leagues.