The Golden State Warriors organization from top to bottom is operating in a state of true professional sports nirvana at the moment as the defending NBA champs, the most talented roster in NBA history, a beautiful new arena and seemingly endless profit.
They are on their way to being the most high-profile NBA team since the late 90s Chicago Bulls and as such can command far more than their counterparts for a jersey ad for the next few seasons.
As seems to always be the case, they got their wish.
While most teams are selling their jerseys ads at a rate of $5-7 million per season (The Cavaliers partnership with Goodyear is worth $10 million a season), the Warriors have agreed to a partnership with Japanese tech holding company Rakuten for $20 million per season over the next three seasons.
BREAKING: @warriors sign jersey patch deal with Rakuten, 3-year deal worth $20 million annually https://t.co/0yxwfvHXC6 pic.twitter.com/dfDuBjnotZ
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 12, 2017
This is not one of the most natural or visually appealing partnerships between team and company as the red logo is a bit of an eye sore on an otherwise beautiful jersey, but the price is right and it only makes sense for a team in Silicon Valley to partner with a tech company.
You can bet you will be seeing a lot of this logo in April, May and June over the next three years.
