Zulily Jumps Into Sports World With Sounders Jersey Deal

The Zulily logo will appear on the Sounders’ first team match jerseys, as well as on team travel jacketssounders

Seattle-based online retailer Zulily is diving into the sports sponsorship world by signing a multiyear deal to become the Sounders' jersey sponsor. This marks the first sports deal for the company, which is a subsidiary of Qurate Retail alongside brands like QVC and HSN. Per the terms of the deal, the Zulily logo will appear on the Sounders’ jerseys, as well as on team travel jackets, rain and stadium jackets and official team polo shirts. It will also appear across Sounders FC academy team jerseys. Additionally, Zulily has signed a multiyear deal with the NWSL’s Seattle Reign to be its jersey sponsor and presenting partner. This will be the first time both Seattle pro soccer teams, which are owned by separate groups, have the same jersey partner. Sounders COO Bart Wiley declined to comment on the terms of the deal, but said that on an annual basis, it is greater than its previous deal with Microsoft’s Xbox. The deal with Zulily also does not include matchday pitch rights, which Xbox previously held, nor naming rights to the training facility, which the Sounders had hired Endeavor, then WME-IMG, to help the club sell in August ’17. Sources said that package of rights could be worth more than eight figures annually for the club.

CONTENT WITH THE VALUE: The average jersey deal across MLS is worth about $3M per year, with expansion club FC Cincinnati's recent deal with Mercy Health valued at $5M per year. Wiley said the club is “very content with where we rank across the league” in regard to revenue from jersey partnerships. Seattle’s overarching deal with Xbox was previously one of the league’s largest, with media reports speculating it was worth upwards of $5M a year. The Sounders’ relationship with Endeavor has since lapsed, and has its internal staff working on selling those remaining rights. The deal with Xbox, which dates back to the club’s inaugural MLS season in ’09, expired following the end of this season. Microsoft had been the jersey sponsor for the Reign the past three season. Zulily Senior VP/Marketing Kevin Saliba said that discussions with the Sounders executive team and Owner Adrian Hanuauer have dated back several months as the company considered making its first foray into sports sponsorship. “We felt this was a really unique opportunity to do something that not only would impact out local community but also help build our brand awareness across the country,” Saliba said, noting that the company did brand awareness research on how other MLS jersey partners have done both locally and nationally (Ian Thomas, THE DAILY).

FUN WHILE IT LASTED: In Seattle, Geoff Baker notes the decade-long partnership between the Sounders and Xbox "spawned the creation of video-game-themed marketing and gameday events that appealed to younger fans.” Sounders players would “don the costumes of video game characters for poster and merchandising photo shoots while Xbox set up interactive booths at CenturyLink Field where fans could play games and pose for pictures.” It is “unclear what synergies will be found within the new deal, though the added revenue won’t hurt a team that lacks its own stadium and the added money from it that some other MLS squads do generate.” The “combined revenues from the Zulily agreement and any pitch rights deal still to come will move the Sounders closer to what top MLS franchises garner from jersey rights” (SEATTLE TIMES, 1/18).

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