“The Detroit Red Wings presented by Amway”

The Red Wings and Amway took their relationship to a new historic level Thursday when it was announced that the Ada, Michigan-based company will be a presenting sponsor of the Original Six club for at least the next three seasons.

The direct quote above, one taken right from the official website of one of the NHL’s most storied and high-class organizations, has had me in complete disarray today.  Next season, the Detroit Red Wings will no longer be that.  They will no longer be merely the Winged Wheel, the most successful Detroit sports team in the history of Michigan sports, they will instead be branded — bound by a contract — to an organization that has, by all accounts of those within the state of Michigan, has disgraced the state.

The new deal will see the Wings and Joe Louis arena plastered with the Amway logo, the implications of which have already been felt with just a few simple keystrokes and a visit to the aforementioned internet home of one of the classiest organizations in all of sports.  The Amway logo, clear as day, in the upper right hand corner of the splash image that introduces the website to all visitors.  The Amway logo, attached to one of the most recognizable symbols in the entire game, anchoring the Red Wings emblem.

 

A portion of the splash image from the Red Wings official website. The Amway logo has already made it's presence felt.

In an in-depth blog post over at Hockey Independent (It’s a long read, but worth your time), the entire framework of the contract is laid out along with some tongue-in-cheek analysis of the statement released by the Red Wings themselves.

Some of the better comments pertain to how the partnership is going to allegedly increase the fan experience at games, only to fail to mention a single way that it will do so aside from the placement of the Amway mark rink wide.  On top of that, the author of the post at Hockey Independent, Gordon, goes on to thank everyone for their support of himself and Justin Verlander in their 20-win season, a jab at Steve Lieberman, VP and Managing Director for Amway North America, who, in a roundabout way, linked the successes of Amway to those of the Red Wings.

Although sullying the name of the franchise and the sanctity of the Red Wings logo with that of Amway is an alarming act in and of itself, it can also be said that it breeds the fear that this could be the direction the league is going.

As a Winnipeg resident at the time of the Jets return mere months ago, it was ever apparent that one of the main hurdles that those in the city were worried about was the idea of corporate sponsorship.  Where would the money come from?  What would the impact be on the team?  Would there be enough money to make the team sustainable?

Now, with this deal and a few notable others this off-season, it is becoming apparent that the next stage for the National Hockey League and it’s thirty franchises is the integration of corporate sponsorship on not only a business level, but an on-ice and visual level.

There was great uproar last season when the Chicago Blackhawks pasted patches of Giordano’s pizza chain on the front of their jeresys, and again some words to be had about the Florida Panthers selling the naming rights to the ice surface inside the BankAtlantic Center.  That’s right, not the building itself, the ice.  The Florida Panthers sold naming rights to frozen water.  Thank you, Lexus.

For the North American sports fan, the idea of teams selling their jerseys for marketing space is so foreign and heavily opposed.  The comparison that is often drawn is that of the international game, where teams throughout Europe and Russia sell the branding rights to almost every inch of space on the jerseys.

The advertising on hockey jerseys outside of North America has reached an almost absurd level.

Admittedly it was before I had any cognitive recognition of what the playing surface looked like, but if you can recall so far, there was a time when on-ice ads were a laughable idea.  Above and beyond that?  A time when not only was the idea of selling advertising space on the surface seemingly impossible to fans, but space on the boards.

When we look at the game today, there is not a single spot on the boards not reserved for promotions of some sort; be it movies, television, restaurants, or local businesses, every space is taken.  The ice?  Four spots, all within the neutral zone, all taken up by the images of those who have bought the space and the right to have their brand be forced down your throat at the drop of every puck.

If this method of gaining profit continues, it can only be a matter of time before we see the first ad appear on the front of a professional jersey.  It is something no hockey fan wants to see, but it has to feel like the dawn of a new day is upon us — and I for one do not like the feeling of impending brand punishment that this new day is bringing with every passing season and every new money making scheme thought up.

While we as fans must all be aware that the ultimate goal of almost every owner, in the modern day especially, is to turn a profit and begin to see a return on their investment, we must also hope that they can find it in their green hearts to keep something sacred, leave this stone unturned, and save us from ruining the beauty of the hockey sweater streaking down the ice.  The blue and white of the Maple Leafs, the blood red of the Detroit Red Wings, the orange, blue, and white of the Oilers; these are colours fans — a family of puck crazy men and women — identity themselves with.

Let’s save ourselves from relinquishing our identity to that of Motorola and Google logos and the days of skating advertisements.

We can only hope this isn’t the direction that the game is going, but if it is, I’ve got some ice cubes in my freezer than BMW can have the naming rights to for a couple hundred dollars.

– JPDC

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