Like I said earlier, I don’t mind ads on jerseys. Especially this one. It looks fine. Good, even. And it’s a total hashtag corporate branding buzzword #synergistic match. I get why this is a big deal— with the Sixers being the first to do it and all. But damn if they’re not continually showing their disconnect with Philly and treating this like it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

How many times now, under Joshua Harris, have we seen the Sixers roll out a ridiculous campaign for something other than basketball? Mascot, Party Poker sponsorship, Draft Kings sponsorship, StubHub partnership, StubHub ads on jerseys. Those are just a few off the top of my head. No other team does this, not on this level. The Sixers make a big deal out of what’s good for them, not what fans give a shit about.

On one hand, I admire the Sixers from a business standpoint– they’re crazy aggressive and progressive. They were among the first to work with a gambling company (PartyPoker) and a daily fantasy company (Draft Kings), and they are the first to sell their tickets exclusively through a partnership with StubHub. They’ve literally discovered every single way to profit off things other than, you know, basketball.

But it’s fair to gripe about the fact that they seemingly put more effort, thought and energy into this stuff than into the team itself, or at least they certainly seem more proud of their C-suite accomplishments than their on-court efforts. It rings extremely hollow with a passionate fan base that has been more than patient with the process or whatever it is now.

Scott O’Neil – the CEO of a basketball team who was on Bloomberg and CNBC this morning – as a public personality, plays much better than Adam Aron, who was a tone-deaf cartoon in way over his head in Philly. At least O’Neil is honest and fittingly brash. We respect that more than whatever that goofy facade Aron put up for us to see. But it doesn’t change the fact that he oversees an organization that continually miscalculates what its fans really care about. I don’t think the Sixers are dumb or even fail to see this, I’m just not so sure they care. Something about putting corporate sponsorship announcements on the level with a major player signing doesn’t feel right.

More: Only $5 million?

That seems low. Granted, there’s really no US market for this, so it appears Harris and Co. just based it on what their English Premier League team, Crystal Palace, reportedly gets for its Gibraltar kit sponsorship– 5 million pounds (I have no idea how to make that symbol on my keyboard):

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As you can see, the costs of kit sponsorships vary wildly. So perhaps $5 million is a fair rate for the Sixers – even if 5 million pounds converts to $7.1 million – compared to a middling team in the most popular league on the planet.

Dan Levy, writing for Billy Penn, disagrees:

If Sixers fans should be mad at anything, it’s the return on the deal. One has to wonder how much the Knicks will get for their jerseys. What will the Lakers command, despite being one of the worst teams in the league, like the Sixers? What about the Warriors or Cavs, two teams with the most jerseys sales and who are on national television all the time?

Don’t be mad that the Sixers have a small logo on their chest. Be mad at how little they got for it.

Put in context, the Philadelphia Union signed a deal in 2014 with Bimbo Bakeries USA for a reported $11 million over five years. If the local MLS team can get $2.3 million per year, how is the NBA team only getting $5 million with how popular the NBA is around the world right now?

Put in context with what the Union are getting… yeah, it’s a bad deal. Add to that the fact that the Sixers are also the first US team to do this, in an environment with vastly more saturated sports broadcasting. Though EPL teams get more international exposure, NBA teams get more national exposure, and thus, that StubHub deal may well be worth more than $5 million in a year or two if the Sixers are on national TV 15 times per season, and especially if they’re in the playoffs. But again, there’s literally no market here, so it’s really hard to judge what this sort of thing is worth. Or…