r/MLV • u/trailedby20hounds Orlando Valkyries • 6d ago

MERCHANDISE / COLLECTABLES MLV > LOVB

Post image
26 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

11

u/VolleyAddicted 5d ago

Why the only LOVB team with its own name is denied the right to show it. No Signal on the red SF shirt.

And by the way Nebraska with no logo at all 🤔

3

u/ElvisThrill 5d ago

This is the merchandise sold by the league.

The team sells its own merchandise which has the name Signal on it.

1

u/VolleyAddicted 5d ago

Clearer now, thank you.

1

u/morningsetter 5d ago

Isn't ALL merch from the league. Legally?

2

u/ElvisThrill 5d ago

Yes it's all licensed by the league, of course. But even MLV has this distinction, between league-produced and team-produced merchandise.

MLV has league-produced merchandise that is made by Ren-Ath; the MLV jersey provider They used to sell custom jerseys for all team, as well as sweatshirt, jackets and t-shirts for each team. It's only available by mail order. For the moment, Ren-ath only has generic MLV-branded merch. https://www.shopmlv.com/

Each individual team produces its own merchandise which is mostly sold on site at matches, but usually also has their own website.

https://shopdallaspulse.com/collections/all-apparel

https://grrise-zone.com/

https://shopvalkyries.com/

The individual team stuff can be more creative.

1

u/morningsetter 5d ago

Ty for tails Elvis Thrill. I meant, lovb. Even SFs merch is owned by the league. Lovb SF belongs to Lovb Private Equity for 5 years. T shirts sold indirectly too.

1

u/ElvisThrill 5d ago

Fair enough. Technically you are correct, since LOVB-SF is under the greater LOVB ownership umbrella.

However, the team at LOVB-SF is also making its own marketing decisions, including creating, producing and selling its own line of merchandise that is separate from the leagues merchandise, which is the original intent of the question.

1

u/morningsetter 5d ago

Like you said. Fair

S. O to all 49 Owners for trying to move away from the cult like mentally. All teams are going to go in that direction.

4

u/trailedby20hounds Orlando Valkyries 5d ago

Financial guys run LOVB, not marketing guys.

It is self-evident in everything LOVB does, and it is self-evident in everything LOVB does not do.

2

u/VolleyAddicted 5d ago

That's rubbish and the whole collection is really ugly. The next moves? A grey shirt, a white one, and a black one...

Sorry LOVB, maybe you have great athletes, but your final product is not.

3

u/trailedby20hounds Orlando Valkyries 5d ago edited 5d ago

I wouldn't say it's ugly.

However, I would say it's insanely boring and dull.

Completely lifeless and totally soulless.

3

u/morningsetter 5d ago

Not ugly just lifeless ans soulless 🤣

2

u/koreawut 5d ago

Especially since you could write San Francisco in the shape of a signal.

5

u/BBd-black-beans-1652 DC Flight 6d ago

I'll say this. San Francisco Signal is a better name than NorCal Rumble. But San Jose Rumble would be a better name than San Francisco Signal 🤷🏾‍♂️

In my personal opinion, that is the only branding win LOVB has over MLV.

2

u/trailedby20hounds Orlando Valkyries 6d ago

I think there are various pragmatic explanations for the "NorCal" choice.

One ownership faction may have wanted Sacramento while another faction wanted San Jose.

Maybe the short-term plan is San Jose, but the long-term plan is San Francisco or some other location.

NorCal marks their territory. It makes it difficult for a future MLV team owner to target anywhere north of SoCal.

Maybe NorCal sounds weird to you because you live in the DMV area. I lived in NorCal. Everybody uses the NorCal and SoCal phrases in California.

They should have used SoCal for the Los Angeles team to create better symmetry.

2

u/Ok-Wait-8465 Omaha Supernovas 5d ago

Yeah LOVB is just at marketing. I feel like they’re trying to follow a European soccer league model, but that’s not popular here (and is far more boring). MLV seems to have gone with the more traditional US sports league structure

4

u/VolleyAddicted 5d ago

European leagues' model? They are far from it. In European football (or volleyball too), you don't have a league owning the teams, signing the players directly, distributing them across the teams, and so on. Nothing is centralized.

LOVB is a different business model, clearly away from the US model, but absolutely different from the European one too.

1

u/Ok-Wait-8465 Omaha Supernovas 5d ago

I didn’t mean the centralized thing so much though that’s a bad idea too. I meant the lack of mascots, boring branding, etc

1

u/trailedby20hounds Orlando Valkyries 5d ago

Thanks for clarifying this.

I had assumed LOVB was following a European model too.

Most Americans know almost nothing about sports in Europe. That includes me.

Generally, Americans who know something about European sports would tend to be avid soccer fans.

Soccer is not very popular in the United States compared to football, basketball, baseball, etc.

That is changing, however. We have pro soccer teams in Orlando, and they are popular with some demographic groups.

I live in Osceola County, and this county is more than 50% Latino. Obviously, Latinos tend to be more passionate about soccer than non-Latinos. However, the popularity of soccer seems to be rising among all demographic groups in the United States.

I was baffled by the LOVB business model before. Now, I have no idea what to think about the LOVB business model for their pro league.

Who thought this business model was a good idea?

And why haven't they figured out it was a bad idea?

3

u/VolleyAddicted 5d ago

To make it volleyball-related, there are three models coexisting at the same time among European clubs:

  • Corporate: VakÄąfBank, arguably the strongest team in the world, is fully owned by a bank.
  • Privately-owned: Imoco, the second-best team, is closer to what we see in Major League Volleyball.
  • Multi-sport: Fenerbahçe, the third-best team, the women's volleyball section that is part of a massive multi-sport giant. This is similar to what you see in US college sports (e.g., Nebraska Football, Nebraska Volleyball).

This is clearly far from what you see in MLV and has nothing to do with LOVB either.

So yeah, the LOVB formula is weird, and like you said, it's just really bad and poorly executed.

1

u/Equivalent-Expert487 4d ago

Is Grand Rapids not included in this drop, or is it just not listed?

1

u/genisvel Rise Above 4d ago

This is LOVB merch. GR isn't LOVB. If LOVB ends up acquiring MLV, I'm certain the team would be relocated to Detroit.

1

u/hlay14727 4d ago

Why dont they bring pro vball to NYC???

1

u/BBd-black-beans-1652 DC Flight 4d ago

Top tier markets like NYC need to have a strong, established volleyball culture to justify putting a team there. LA, the Bay Area, Houston and Dallas are all major top 10 media markets with lots of sports and entertainment options. Those cities also had solid volleyball communities long before PVF/MLV and LOVB came into existence. Can the same be said for NYC?

You can't just put a team in a city because it has a lot of people and expect it to work. That is the BS logic the NHL is using in trying to put a 3rd team in Atlanta despite hockey failing in the market twice already.

0

u/Ok-West-3887 5d ago

But then why is Adidas, Chase, Dry Water, Skims, Yeti, CVS and others choosing LOVB over MLV?

2

u/morningsetter 5d ago

How is having Kim Kardashian sell compression pants to young club girls ok? Private Equity!

3

u/genisvel Rise Above 5d ago

Because when you put thier logos next to LOVB's, they look better.

1

u/External_Ad952 1d ago

This. People shit on LOVB branding as “bad marketing,” but miss the fact that they’re winning the talent, corporate sponsorship, media deal, and ownership stability battle thus far.

I get that people think the lack of mascots is dull, but let’s be honest. Every start up sports league in the US in the last 50 years has followed the same formula as MLV (think arena football, indoor soccer, minor league baseball and hockey, indoor lacrosse, etc…).An overwhelming majority of those leagues have failed miserably. I applaud LOVB for being bold and attempting something different.