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AHL Team Gives Unintentional Commentary on the Uni-Verse

There’s a lot of ownership overlap between the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals — the top minor league affiliate of the NHL’s Nashville Predators — and MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers. As a result, the Brewers advertise on the Admirals’ uniforms, and the the Admirals have worn several Brewers-themed one-off jerseys over the years, including these:

They’ll be wearing another Brewers-themed design this Friday. This one is based on the Brewers’ City Connect uniform, and — well, see for yourself:

Okay, they’re the Admirals, so people call them the Ads — I get it. But given the current state of the uni-verse, it’s easy to read that chest mark as a placeholder graphic until they can sell that space on the jersey. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect summation of our current race to the bottom.

In case you’re wondering: The Ads have worn “Ads” on their jersey on at least one other occasion. In 2010, they played two games in a specialty jersey inspired by the 1980 Team USA Olympic hockey champions:

But 2010 was a lifetime ago in uni-advertising terms. Hell, in 2010, NBA uniforms didn’t even have maker’s marks, much less third-party ads. So that earlier “Ads” jersey didn’t land the same way that the new one does.

 
  
 
Comments (13)

    It is odd that they wear the Brewers logo on the uniform.
    It just seems silly and pointless to have it on there as an ad for the Brewers. It feels more like some odd cross promotional branding that the ownership wants to tie the minor league hockey team to the major league baseball club. I doubt the Brewers actually gain and fans or public awareness out of this. And while the occasional cross sport uni concept might get some merch interest, I don’t know how much this elevates the Admirals. It all feels weird.
    But it would be funny to see one big 4 sports team advertise on the uniform of another big 4 sports team. Like the Chargers desperate to build up their LA fan base start buying ad space on the Lakers and Dodgers uniforms.

    Yes, it’s certainly cross-promotional, because the Brewers and Admirals partner in cross-promotion. Beyond just the close ties in ownership and management, the two teams have supported one another for decades. The Brewers return the favor with a hockey night every year. It’s nice! No one is upset by it!

    I kind of like these. Better than the Brewers CC uniform on which it is based. As for Ads, I am waiting for a new team called the Advertisements (Ads for short).

    I think the most interesting thing I learned after doing a deep dive on the Admirals is that, the roles are reversed for the baseball teams of the affiliated cities. The Nashville Sounds are the triple-a affiliate of the Brewers, in a reverse of the Admirals being an affiliate of the Predators

    It’s more than promotional.

    Admirals owner Harris Turer, the grandson of Masterlock founder Harry Sofer, has been a part owner of the Brewers since 1996.

    Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is a minority owner of the Admirals. As are former Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets and asst GM Gord Ash.

    Nice colors anyway….

    I tend to dislike word-logos as the main crest on hockey sweaters. It’s rare in sports to have that large area front-and-center that is unbroken (no placket, no numbers) and so suitable to a great crest, so script logos seem like a bit of a waste. There are some exceptions (NYR, for example), and not every team has to have a big crest, but it’s part of what makes great hockey sweaters great.

    Aside from the colors, I never really liked the “Brew Crew” alternate for the Brewers because I don’t like the typeface and I think the name is dumb, so it’s the same here for me.

    I think it’d be cool if they could modify the “M-b” ball-in-glove so that it became “M-a” and used a hockey puck instead of a baseball.

    I’ve never been a fan of their skeleton admiral logo. The cartoon skating admiral from the 80s-90s was great.

    How about the irony of using the bones and hockey stick logo in the place where an actual ad might go?!

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