Sponsorships apparently don't hurt jersey sales much: Parker, Taurasi top the list

by Nate Parham on Jul 8, 2010 6:54 PM EDT in WNBA

The Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury are the top two most popular selling merchandise, led by the top selling jerseys of Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker. Who says sponsorships are a bad thing? Photo by Craig Bennett/112575 Media.

It probably isn't too much of a surprise that Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi have the WNBA's two most popular jerseys from October 2009 through June 2010 at the NBA Store in New York City and WNBAStore.com.

Maybe it's sort of interesting is that Parker has had the number one selling jersey in the league since she joined in 2008 and already has the best selling WNBA jersey in the history of both the NBA Store and WNBAStore.com.

Most interesting (as interesting as jersey sales get) is that the sponsorships that the Mercury and Sparks added to their jerseys certainly didn't necessarily hurt their sales relative to the rest of the league (official numbers weren't released). It might be interesting to see how the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty fare next year with their new sponsorships.

If there's anything surprising about the results, it might be in the team merchandise numbers: the Seattle Storm are 4th in team merchandise sales with only one player (Sue Bird) in the top ten jersey sales, whereas the New York Liberty are 5th with four players in the top ten (Janel McCarville, Essence Carson, Shameka Christon, Cappie Pondexter – New York Liberty). It might be interesting to know what Seattle is selling so well in addition to jerseys to beat out the Liberty in a New York store.

Full list after the jump.

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR PLAYER JERSEYS:

La_sparks___phoenix_mercury_117_medium Photo by Craig Bennett/112575 Media.

1. Candace Parker – Los Angeles Sparks (above)

2. Diana Taurasi – Phoenix Mercury (above)

3. Lisa Leslie – Los Angeles Sparks

018_medium
Photo courtesy of Max Simbron.

4. Becky Hammon – San Antonio Silver Stars

Hammon_medium
Photo courtesy of Kailas Images

5. Janel McCarville – New York Liberty
6. Essence Carson – New York Liberty
7. Shameka Christon – New York Liberty*
8. Cappie Pondexter – New York Liberty
9. Sue Bird – Seattle Storm
10. Angel McCoughtry – Atlanta Dream

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR TEAM MERCHANDISE:
1. Los Angeles Sparks
2. Phoenix Mercury
3. San Antonio Silver Stars
4. Seattle Storm
5. New York Liberty

Poll

Which is your favorite WNBA jersey?

#1 Los Angeles Sparks

5 votes

#2 Phoenix Mercury

9 votes

#3 San Antonio Silver Stars

3 votes

#4 Seattle Storm

35 votes

#5 New York Liberty

8 votes

Other

4 votes

64 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Seattle is leading the poll......

How many times did you vote Q? :)

I think it’s very interesting that Parker’s & Taurasi’s jersey sales are so strong. I listened to a podcast on the Women’s Sports Talk Show a few weeks back and most of the panelists were adamant that the jersey sponsorships would hurt the league in terms of player/team recognition. I couldn’t disagree more, I think it’s great. Nice to see the league’s merchandising is doing well. I need to get over to the WNBA store, I’m still holding on to my T-Spoon jersey!

by az25blue on Jul 8, 2010 7:58 PM EDT reply actions

Come on now... ;)

You know I would never resort to such tactics. I would sooner write about the Storm all the time to the exclusion of all else to skew the results ;)

Really, I’m sure Seattle fans are just voting more because they’re inside at a higher rate than usual hiding from this foreign phenomenon of consecutive sunny days.

At this point, it’s hard to make arguments against jersey sponsorships — apparently they’re doing well…and they bring in money…which the league kinda requires to operate…

SwishAppeal.com for women's basketball...SB Nation Seattle for Seattle sports. Twitter: @QMcCall3.

by Nate Parham on Jul 10, 2010 12:44 AM EDT up reply actions