<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was just no reason to talk to anybody else as long as we progressed to a deal, which took a while because these are complicated and expensive deals,\u201d Mavericks CEO Rick Welts told\u00a0The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
As the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> in recent months pursued a new jersey patch deal<\/a>, executives didn\u2019t exactly cast a wide net and engage in conversations with scores of potential corporate partners.<\/p>\n Instead, they had serious conversations with one just suitor:\u00a0JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n A long-entrenched relationship coupled with a selective brand with eyes on the D-FW market led to the Mavericks’ jersey patch deal with Chase, the latest such agreement in what is now a more than $800 million sports sponsorship category\u00a0\u2014 and growing.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThere was just no reason to talk to anybody else as long as we progressed to a deal, which took a while because these are complicated and expensive deals,\u201d Mavericks CEO Rick Welts told\u00a0The Dallas Morning News. \u201cBut we all knew where we wanted to end up. We were fortunate enough to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York-based banking company\u2019s blue and white octagon logo will appear on the upper left front strap of the Mavericks\u2019 jerseys, replacing the former green emblem of the previous sponsor, Chime.<\/p>\n NBA teams have been allowed to partner with companies for rights to display a 2.5-inch-by-2.5-inch patch on jerseys since the 2017-18 season. And the deals represent a significant source of revenue for the league\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But the average NBA jersey patch deal was worth a little more than $8.5 million to teams, according to 2024-25 season data SponsorUnited shared with The News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The most lucrative deal? Last month, Sportico reported that the Golden State Warriors signed a deal with AI cloud provider Iren for the company\u2019s logo to be on the team\u2019s jersey starting next season, an agreement worth more than $50 million per year that is the richest sponsorship deal in the history of North American sports.<\/p>\n The average\u00a0MLB jersey patch deal is also worth some $8.5 million, with the most lucrative being the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 deal with Guggenheim.<\/p>\n The value of the jersey patch market across six U.S. professional sports is $828 million, the data showed, with expectations to hit $1 billion by 2030. It is also an increasingly valuable sponsorship asset, representing 31% of annual brand investments and almost on par with venue naming rights (34%). Financial brands represent 25% of the jersey patch market.<\/p>\n The deals are increasingly important for brands because of the visibility on so many platforms. The fact that viewers will see the Chase logo every time the TV camera homes in on Cooper Flagg is important, but it extends far beyond that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Countless fans, especially younger demographics, consume NBA games on YouTube curated highlight reels or catch short-form highlights on TikTok and Instagram. Brands pay millions for that level of visibility.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the single most visible association that we have with any company,\u201d Welts said, \u201cjust because Dereck Lively is going to be wearing that jersey and every photograph that is taken, every piece of video game footage that happens this year, so it\u2019s really important to be associated with a company that brings as much value as Chase does.\u201d<\/p>\n The jersey of Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, pictured with new Chase jersey patch to be worn for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n ‘A perfect storm situation’<\/p>\n When Welts was president of the Golden State Warriors in 2016, they announced that Chase would be the naming rights partner for Chase Center some three years before the $1.4 billion arena opened in San Francisco. He said he saw firsthand how Chase took that opportunity and developed it in the Bay Area with fans and card members.<\/p>\n He said he was \u201cblown away.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Initial conversations between the Mavericks and Chase began in December. There was mutual interest. Welts said Dallas is emerging as one of the most important markets for financial institutions over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n The partnership was negotiated from both sides by Creative Artists Agency \u2014 the same company that represents Flagg and new Mavericks coach Dusty May.<\/p>\n This is the Chase brand\u2019s first NBA jersey patch deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kate Schoff, the head of sports and entertainment marketing for JPMorganChase, said the brand is very selective in its sports sponsorship deals. It does its due diligence on how a franchise is run, the makeup of markets and assesses what the company can bring to the community.\u00a0 It also has long-standing sponsorship deals with the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Chase\u2019s logo also will be visible throughout American Airlines Center, including a dedicated entrance on the east side of the arena for eligible cardholders. As part of the collaboration, Chase cardholders can access year-round benefits at Mavs shops and arena concessions during games and select AAC events. Cardholders will also receive game-day perks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had our eye on the Dallas-Fort Worth area for quite some time,\u201d Schoff told The News. \u201cWe have been keeping tabs on the sports scene. It was a perfect storm situation. There was this opportunity that existed in this market that\u2019s really important to us \u2026 and we were able to move quite quickly because we had the history and the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere was just no reason to talk to anybody else as long as we progressed to a deal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,2582,103,11717,67591,3080,4974,88032,89489,87998,91363],"class_list":["post-368441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallas-news","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jpmorganchase","tag-nba","tag-rick-welts","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-american-airlines-center","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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