The Golden State Warriors’ record unbeaten run to start the season has served to make the defending NBA champions even richer off the court, as well.
The team last week was set to sign a multiyear agreement valued in the seven figures annually with State Farm Insurance in its top-level, Gold Alliance sponsorship tier. Finalization of the deal was expected as soon as this week.
WARRIORS' GOLD ALLIANCE SPONSORS
■ Oracle*
■ American Express
■ City National Bank
■ Clorox Co.
■ Ignite Farm
■ Kaiser Permanente
■ State Farm Insurance^
* Also naming-rights holder for the Warriors’ arena
^ Pending deal
Source: Golden State Warriors
With the addition of State Farm, also an NBA league-level partner, the Warriors will have added 14 partners since the end of last season and will have renewed 19 other accounts, with an average increase in total value of those renewals of 30 percent.
Sponsorship revenue for the team for this season has climbed by 20 percent compared to last season, and Golden State now ranks among the top three in the NBA in sponsorship revenue, though neither the team nor the NBA would disclose the other top-ranking teams. When Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the franchise in 2010, the Warriors ranked among the bottom three teams leaguewide in sponsorship revenue, said Chip Bowers, chief marketing officer for the Warriors.
State Farm will be Golden State’s seventh Gold Alliance partner, with at least one more top-tier partner likely to be added, Bowers said. The multiyear deals include prominent in-arena and digital signage. State Farm will get basket stanchion signage in its deal. It is the company’s 25th NBA team deal.
Omnicom represented State Farm in the Warriors deal.
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Golden State was set to add State Farm as a top-level sponsor last week.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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The Warriors — who entered last weekend having won a league-record 20 straight games to start the season this year — now have more than 70 team sponsorship deals, below the NBA team average of 90, Bowers said. But he added that Golden State isn’t looking to land many more deals.
“We are around 74 now and that is probably our sweet spot, but we may go up to 85,” Bowers said. “We go deeper with our partners to resonate with our categories.”
The one major open category for the team is airline partner. The Warriors also don’t have a sponsor for the floor apron in front of the team benches at Oracle Arena. At least half of the NBA teams have floor apron deals, and the space is considered to be a valuable piece of sponsorship inventory, but Golden State is holding off on a deal.
“We are being very diligent in that,” Bowers said. “We have had a number of conversations but haven’t found the right fit yet.”
But don’t look for the Warriors to sign any long-term sponsorship deals as they work to win approval for a planned new arena across the bay in San Francisco to open by the 2018-19 season.
“We are not doing longer-term deals as we make the transition to San Francisco,” Bowers said. “We are early in the process of figuring out what we are doing [for sales at the new venue].”
