The Future Of Jersey Sponsorships Across US Sports Leagues

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Clubs across the English Premier League (EPL) collectively bring in nearly $400 million in revenue from shirt sponsorship deals each year. This includes the $57 million that TeamViewer pays Manchester United, the $60 million that Standard Chartered pays Liverpool, and the $80 million that Eithad pays Manchester City.

Top 5 Largest Premier League Shirt Sponsorship Deals (Annual)

1. Manchester City (Eithad): $80 million

2. Liverpool (Standard Chartered): $60 million

3. Manchester United (TeamViewer): $57 million

4. Tottenham Hotspur (AIA): $48 million

5. Chelsea (Three): $48 million

This is nothing new, of course. Premier League clubs have been selling shirt sponsorships since the 1970s — Liverpool was the first top-flight English football club to have a shirt sponsor when they signed a 2-year, £100,000 deal with Hitachi in 1979 — and it has since become a primary source of income for each club.

For example, about a quarter of Manchester United’s $700 million in annual revenue comes from their shirt alone — $90 million from official kit supplier Adidas, $57 million from main sponsor TeamViewer, and $24 million from sleeve sponsor DKC.

But even with all that commercial success in Europe, jersey sponsorships have never really been a thing in America — until now.

Major American Sports Leagues Start To Experiment

Smaller leagues like MLS and the WNBA have had jersey sponsorships since the mid-2000s. This allowed them to maximize revenue during their early growth years, and it wasn’t seen as that much of a risk since the leagues were relatively small at the time.

But the NBA, MLB, and NHL have since followed in their footsteps and now allow some form of uniform sponsorship — and while the world’s biggest sports league, the NFL, still does not allow game jersey sponsors, they do allow practice jersey sponsors.

But how much are these leagues and teams actually making? Well, let’s run through each of them.

The NBA Makes A Permanent Change

The NBA began allowing jersey patch sponsors at the start of the 2017-18 season. The sponsorship covers a 2.5-inch-by-2.5-inch patch on the top corner of each team’s jersey, and teams can also sell sponsorships across practice and warmup gear.

The financials of these deals are typically kept private. Still, the biggest teams — Lakers, Warriors, Nets, etc. — are reportedly signing deals worth $20 million to $30 million annually, and the average deal is probably around $10 million annually.

List of NBA jersey sponsors (87% of teams)

1. Atlanta Hawks: Sharecare

2. Boston Celtics: Vistaprint

3. Brooklyn Nets: Webull

4. Charlotte Hornets: LendingTree

5. Chicago Bulls: Motorola

6. Cleveland Cavaliers: Cliffs

7. Dallas Mavericks: Chime

8. Denver Nuggets: Western Union

9. Detroit Pistons: United Wholesale Mortgage

10. Golden State Warriors: Rakuten

11. Houston Rockets: Credit Karma

12. Indiana Pacers: Motorola 

13. Los Angeles Clippers: Honey

14. Los Angeles Lakers: Bibigo

15. Memphis Grizzlies: None

16. Miami Heat: Ultimate Kronos Group 

17. Milwaukee Bucks: Motorola 

18. Minnesota Timberwolves: Aura

19. New Orleans Pelicans: Ibotta 

20. New York Knicks: None

21. Oklahoma City Thunder: Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores

22. Orlando Magic: Walt Disney World

23. Philadelphia 76ers: Crypto.com

24. Phoenix Suns: PayPal 

25. Portland Trail Blazers: None

26. Sacramento Kings: Dialpad

27. San Antonio Spurs: Self Financial

28. Toronto Raptors: Sun Life Financial

29. Utah Jazz: Qualtrics

30. Washington Wizards: None

The NBA’s jersey patch program is now bringing in about $225 million in annual revenue for teams across the league. That represents a ~5% revenue increase for the average team, and the NBA decided to extend the program after an initial 2-year test.

The NHL Dives In Head-First

The NHL began allowing one sponsor patch on jerseys at the start of the 2022-23 season and helmet sponsors at the start of the 2020-21 season.

These patches can be on the left and right shoulders or the left and right chest. And similar to how the NBA’s program initially started, the NHL doesn’t expect most of its teams to have jersey patch sponsors through the 2023-24 season.

The league also allows each team to sign sponsors for their helmets.

List of NHL jersey sponsors (38% of teams) 

1. Arizona Coyotes: Gila River Resorts & Casinos

2. Boston Bruins: Rapid7

3. Columbus Blue Jackets: Safelite

4. Minnesota Wild: TRIA Orthopedics

5. Montreal Canadiens: RBC 

6. Pittsburgh Penguins: Highmark 

7. St. Louis Blues: Stifel

8. Toronto Maple Leafs: Dairy Farmers of Ontario 

9. Vancouver Canucks: TD 

10. Vegas Golden Knights: Circa Las Vegas

11. Washington Capitals: Caesars Sportsbook 

12. Winnipeg Jets: Canada Life 

List of NHL helmet sponsors (84% of teams) 

1. Anaheim Ducks: OC Navigator

2. Arizona Coyotes: Goodwill

3. Boston Bruins: TD Bank

4. Calgary Flames: Telus

5. Chicago Blackhawks: Belle Tire

6. Columbus Blue Jackets: Bread Financial and iDesign

7. Dallas Stars: Energy Transfer and 7-Eleven

8. Detroit Red Wings: Meijer 

9. Edmonton Oilers: Skip 

10. Florida Panthers: Amerant

11. Minnesota Wild: Toyota 

12. Montreal Canadiens: Bell and CIBC

13. Nashville Predators: Koursen and Vanderbilt Health

14. New Jersey Devils: Prudential and LeGrand Coffee House

15. New York Islanders: UBS and Jackpocket

16. New York Rangers: Benjamin Moore

17. Ottawa Senators: Kinaxis and Bet99

18. Pittsburgh Penguins: Bold Penguin and PPG

19. San Jose Sharks: SAP

20. Seattle Kraken: Amazon and The Climate Pledge

21. St Louis Blues: BJC Healthcare and CarShield

22. Tampa Bay Lightning: TGH and Brandt

23. Toronto Maple Leafs: TikTok

24. Vancouver Canucks: NexGen Energy

25. Vegas Golden Knights: CreditOne Bank and P3 Health Partners

26. Washington Capitals: CapitalOne

27. Winnipeg Jets: Bell

Similar to the NBA, the financials behind these deals are relatively unknown, and they also typically include traditional sponsorship inventory as well — arena signage, corporate activations, on-ice advertisements, and more.

But still, the going rate is believed to be $5 million to $10 million a year for each team, and it’s projected to eventually generate $100 million in new revenue for the league.

Major League Soccer Looks To Expand Its Footing

As I mentioned before, Major League Soccer has allowed front-of-jersey sponsorships since 2007. And in 2020, the league also began allowing sponsorships to be sold on the sleeve of game jerseys.

Nearly all MLS teams have signed front-of-jersey sponsorship deals, and about 50% of teams have already signed sleeve sponsors, with some deals reaching mid-seven figures.

List of MLS jersey sponsors (97% of teams) 

1. Atlanta United: American Family Insurance (Undisclosed terms)

2. Charlotte FC: Ally ($7 million per year)

3. Chicago Fire: Motorola (Undisclosed terms)

4. FC Cincinnati: Mercy Health ($5 million per year) 

5. Columbus Crew: Nationwide ($3 million per year)

6. DC United: XDC Network (Undisclosed terms)

7. Inter Miami: XBTO ($4 million to $5 million per year)

8. CF Montréal: Bank of Montreal ($4 million per year)

9. New England Revolution: UnitedHealthcare ($3 million per year)

10. New York City FC: Etihad Airways (Undisclosed terms)

11. New York Red Bulls: Red Bull (No terms)

12. Orlando City: Orlando Health (Undisclosed terms)

13. Philadelphia Union: Subaru (Undisclosed terms)

14. Toronto FC: Bank of Montreal ($4 million per year)

15. Austin FC: Yeti ($4 million+ per year)

16. Colorado Rapids: None 

17. FC Dallas: MTX Group (Undisclosed terms)

18. Houston Dynamo: MD Anderson Cancer Center ($4 million+ per year)

19. LA Galaxy: Herbalife Nutrition ($4.4 million per year)

20. LAFC: Flex ($5 million per year)

21. Minnesota United: Target (Undisclosed terms)

22. Nashville SC: Renasant Bank (Undisclosed terms)

23. Portland Timbers: Alaska Airlines ($3 million per year)

24. Real Salt Lake: LifeVantage ($3 million per year)

25. San Jose Earthquakes: Intermedia (Undisclosed terms)

26. Seattle Sounders: Zulily ($6 million per year)

27. Sporting KC: Compass Minerals (Undisclosed terms)

28. Vancouver Whitecaps: Bell ($4 million+ per year)

29. St. Louis CITY SC: Purina (Undisclosed terms)

As with most of the other leagues, the total amount of revenue generated by shirt sponsorships across MLS is unknown, but most deals range between $3 million to $7 million per year — so multiply the lower end of that range ($5 million) by the number of teams (29), and you get $145 million in annual revenue.

Major League Baseball Looks To Make A Splash

This coming 2023 season, Major League Baseball will allow teams to have jersey sponsor patches on the uniform’s arm sleeve. But given it’s the first season coming up for this new allowance, we’re still in the early stages of the market’s development.

Only five teams (17%) have signed sponsorship deals so far, and the range is pretty wide, with deals priced anywhere from $5 million to $17 million annually.

List of MLB jersey sponsors (17% of teams) 

1. Arizona Diamondbacks: Avnet (Undisclosed terms) 

2. Boston Red Sox: MassMutual ($17 million per year)

3. Cincinnati Reds: Kroger ($5 million per year)

4. Los Angeles Angels: Foundation Building Materials (Undisclosed terms)

5. San Diego Padres: Motorola($10 million per year)

This market is still developing, and more teams will surely sign deals over the coming months and years, but one thing to note is that the patches seem significantly bigger than their counterparts in the NBA and other leagues.

What About The NFL?

The elephant in the room when talking about jersey sponsorships across major US sports leagues is that even though the NFL is the only league not to participate, they still make a significant amount more in sponsorship revenue than everybody else.

Of course, the world’s most profitable sports league could extend its lead by letting individual teams sell jersey sponsorships for an estimated $20 million to $30 million each season — but there is currently no indication that they will do that.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Monday is Presidents Day, so we’ll talk on Wednesday.

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Huddle Up is a 3x weekly newsletter that breaks down the business and money behind sports. Subscribers include investors, professional athletes, team owners, and casual fans. So if you are not already a subscriber, sign up and join 88,000+ others who receive it directly in their inbox each week — it’s free.