WNBA Sparks Secure Jersey Sponsorship With Farmers Insurance

Sparks Become Second WNBA Team To Finalize Jersey Sponsorship

The WNBA Sparks and Farmers Insurance Group signed a multi-year partnership that includes branded jersey sponsorship that began with the club's season-opening game Saturday against the Shock. The Farmers Insurance name and logo appears on the front of the Sparks' jerseys and warm-up suits. The deal also includes in-arena signage at Staples Center, a media buy and community activities. The Sparks are the second WNBA team to finalize a jersey sponsorship, joining the Mercury, who also signed a deal with LifeLock last week (WNBA). The LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL's David Nusbaum reported Farmers Insurance, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, will spend more than $1M annually for the jersey rights (LABUSINESSJOURNAL.com, 6/5). ABC's Nancy Lieberman said, "Kudos to those sponsors for stepping up and really making a historic sponsorship for the league and seeing a bigger picture in this economy. The fact that Los Angeles and Phoenix were the first, they certainly will not be the last." Lieberman: “I like it -- anything that helps the awareness and the security of these teams" ("Shock-Sparks,” ABC, 6/6).

Welts Says WNBA Jersey Sponsorships Driven By Economics

START OF SOMETHING BIG? Suns and Mercury President & CEO Rick Welts Friday appeared on Fox Business and discussed the league allowing jersey sponsorships. Welts: "This summer when the teams and league sat down to think about what this season could present, it really was the right time to kind of take another look at the opportunities that we provide our partners, and this is just the right time for the right league." More Welts: "Without question it's driven by the economics. Our teams need to have a blueprint for the future that allows them to be successful and assures the long-term viability of the WNBA." Welts, when asked whether NBA teams will ink similar deals in the future, said with basketball being the "youngest and most international of all the professional sports, I do think that gives us fewer constraints." But he added, "We're years away, if ever, from seeing a similar thing in the NBA or the NFL or (MLB). But I think it's kind of crazy -- and a particularly American attitude -- to say never, because the rest of the world looks at this as the way they've been doing business for decades" (Fox Business, 6/5).

WHAT'S IN A NAME? The EXAMINER's Bob Frantz wrote it is "easy to dismiss the moves" by the Mercury and Sparks as "being a desperate one by a desperate league that is starved for cash as attendance and revenues disappear," but jersey sponsorship is the "first baby-step toward the NASCAR-ization of all professional sports franchises." Frantz: "I honestly never thought we'd get to this point" (EXAMINER.com, 6/7). In N.Y., Filip Bondy wrote he finds "nothing wrong with the concept" of jersey sponsorship. Unlike stadiums, which are "mostly built by taxpayers and ought to be named by the cities, jerseys belong to the teams," and those teams are "profit-churning corporations themselves." In a "few cases -- the Cleveland Indians' racist Chief Wahoo comes to mind -- a simple corporate logo might well be a vast improvement" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/7). 

SADDLE UP: Broncos COO Joe Ellis said a potential practice jersey sponsorship is "something we're exploring as we move forward in 2009." In Denver, Mike Klis reports the Broncos and the Colorado Lottery also are "in the process of forging a relationship" (DENVER POST, 6/8).