NBA Jersey Sponsorship Study
The NBA will become the first big-league to have a corporate logo on their uniforms starting this new season. There is no doubt that this new inventory will be one of the key sponsorship assets to most teams – the Golden State Warriors are asking for $15M to $20M per year for the rights to put its small patch logo on their jersey while the Philadelphia 76ers became first NBA team to ink a three-year deal with StubHub. However, some critiques argue that there will be consumer backlash or at least some level of resistance toward jerseys with corporate logo. While there are many speculations how basketball fans would respond to sponsors and the new uniform, no evidence exist to tell us how fans would respond. Thus, we conducted an experiment to find answers to the following questions that might be interesting to teams and sponsors: Does NBA fans’ origin (domestic vs. international) have an impact on responses to the jersey sponsor? Does team’s playoff status from the previous season impact fans’ responses to the jersey sponsor? Does brand prominence (Fortune 500 company vs. non-Fortune 500 company) impact fans’ responses to the sponsoring brand? Does having a manufacturer logo (i.e., Nike’s swoosh) on the jersey elevate brand evaluation for sponsors? Does individual fan’s team identification level (casual fans vs. avid fans) matter?