"This space for rent" on NFL practice jerseys can't hurt them as memorabilia

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is reporting that a couple of NFL teams are close to securing sponsorship deals on their practice jerseys — selling a space for an advertisement.

You can read all about it here.

Whether you like the idea or not — or fear something that looks like a NASCAR uniform or a Phoenix WNBA jersey (we’re not sure what the team name is anymore, really) — one thing is certain.

It can’t hurt the value of practice jerseys as memorabilia because the nameless and often patchless threads really aren’t appealing at all.

For example, Jim Yackel, a long-time dealer of game-worn sports memorabilia, has several Denver Broncos practice jerseys among his inventory, all between $100 and $450. The $100 jersey is an unused 1997 Steve Atwater practice jersey, while the high-end example is a 1997 jersey for Hall of Famer Gary Zimmerman.

A game-used standard jersey of a typical NFL player — even one showing little or no use — will push that much price-wise because of a nameplate, the patches and the visual appeal of an item. Zimmerman’s practice jersey (above) is definitely a Broncos jersey based on the numbering style, but that’s about its only discernible NFL tie.

Yackel’s “common” NFL game jerseys are around $250, while star jerseys push the $1,000 mark and higher. For example, an autographed Ricky Williams Dolphins gamer carries a $2,100 price tag even though Williams hasn’t carried anything regularly on a football field since 2003. A Zimmerman gamer is easily a four-figure item as well.

Another example of where logos and branding help memorabilia? The Arena Football League’s jerseys commonly carry (or carried?) sponsor logos, which help add to the appeal of the jerseys and help “make” the memorabilia whether the players are all that well-known or not. They also help date and authenticate an item to a specific season or game — as do similar details on NFL gamers. And what’s most memorable at this point about XFL memorabilia — particularly the helmets? The garish branding, which believe it or not, can’t hurt the appeal of the item.

Right now, you don’t get that with practice jerseys, which are as mundane as it gets. Anything to help add to the visual identity of NFL practice jerseys — if smartly designed with some kind of team tie-in — would help improve the practice threads as memorabilia while also helping the team’s bottom line. (They also might be able to move more of them on the team’s Website, a practice that several teams have done in the past, but have discontinued.)

In a time where everything has a price — even the sod from the old Yankee Stadium — and it seems there are buyers for everything in the sports world (so much so teams change uniform styles or add alternate colors seemingly weekly), one would think that the attention to detail for something as simple as a practice jersey would also be examined.

Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.