Major League Baseball Players Inc. (MLBPI) is suing the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and the Sheetz convenience-store chain for damages and relief over what it calls “misappropriation for commercial purposes of the names, images and likenesses” of players related to a multi-year partnership for the retailer to display its logo on Pirates players’ home and away jersey sleeves, according to court documents.
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association Inc., the players union, approved the use of sponsor patches on jerseys at the beginning of the 2023 season as part of a new collective bargaining agreement. In February, Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuikTrip became the official jersey patch partner of the Kansas City Royals.
The new Sheetz patch debuted on the field on June 21. Pirates front-office officials, outfielder Bryan Reynolds, pitcher Jared Jones and Pirates players joined Sheetz executives on the field as part of the announcement. The sponsorship agreement also includes ballpark signage, in-game activations and social and digital content.
While the Pirates—and other teams—have the right to license space on players’ uniforms to a corporate sponsor such as Sheetz, neither the team nor the retailer “have the right, without a license from MLBPI, to use the names, images or likenesses of three or more players in a calendar year in any marketing campaign,” the documents said.
An Instagram post cited in the court documents includes images of eight players and uniforms with the Sheetz patch and features players Paul Skenes and Oneil Cruz. Another Instagram post included images of five players, Andrew McCutcheon, Oneil Cruz, Nick Gonzales, Carmen Mlodzinski and Connor Joe. The plaintiffs published similar posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
“Defendants wrongfully exploited those players’ names, images and other identifying information as part of defendants’ joint promotion, on multiple social media platforms,” of the sponsorship agreement. “Knowing they did not have the required license, the Pirates and Sheetz used videos and images of multiple individual Players in violation of MLBPI’s group rights, in an effort to increase the consumer appeal of Sheetz’s stores, brand and products and to increase the commercial value of the patch sponsorship agreement. … This use of the players’ name, image and likeness rights without written consent from MLBPI violates Pennsylvania’s statutory and common law ‘rights of publicity’,” the plaintiffs allege.
As assignee of licensing rights, MLBPI issued “repeated warnings” to the Pirates and Sheetz not to use players in promotional campaigns without authorization, the plaintiffs allege.
MLBPI seeks to obtain an accounting of defendants’ allegedly unlawful sales and profits, compensatory and punitive damages and to prevent further “willful misappropriation.”
Sheetz did not respond to a CSP request for comment on the matter.
In a response to a request by the Post-Gazette, Pirates’ Senior Vice President of Communications said, “We were surprised by this complaint, as we have been engaged in active discussions on this matter. We have since reached a verbal agreement and expect this complaint to be withdrawn.”
- Sheetz is No. 13 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Established in 1952 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Sheetz currently operates more than 740 convenience stores in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland.
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