MLB Jersey Patches: How Much Are They Really Worth?
In response to a lower-revenue COVID season, the MLB approved sponsored sleeve patches to be added to a team’s brand asset repertoire. The San Diego Padres were the first team to sign a jersey patch sponsorship deal and they did so with the telecommunications company, Motorola. We can already see that the simplicity and recognizable ‘M’ logo of Motorola will reap strong returns as a sleeve patch.
The first question that both brands and teams are asking is, “how much is this worth?”. All of our eyes at Trajektory are lighting up with this question. Here’s what we know. The NBA acted as a bit of a guinea pig with their jersey patches that debuted in the 2017-18 season. By the end of the season, every team in the NBA had a jersey patch sponsor providing lots of data to us data nerds. At the end of the 2018-19 season, Nielsen reported that the average QI Media Value per team was $1.85 million with the highest return being $8million. So let's use that as a starting point. Spoiler alert, the result is much higher.
Now, there are major differences between the NBA patch and the MLB patch that need to be taken into account. The TLDR here is that the MLB patch can be much more valuable for brands given the better return. This is because of the slow-paced reality of a baseball game. For example, pitchers get close-up broadcast views while they stand relatively still deciding their next pitch. Similarly, batters and catchers will be almost motionless on screen as they wait for the pitch. Also, think about the views in the dugout. Unlike the NBA, those in the dugout are rarely wearing warm-up gear so every dugout shot will have the patch in full view. This provides greater quality recognition as you sit and watch your favorite team whether in the stadium or at home. Additionally, the MLB patch is much larger in size compared to the NBA patch giving it even better coverage and recognition. All of this is taken into account when talking about valuation and brand return.
So, the question remains. What is it worth? In 2019, Nielsen reported that it expects the MLB patch to result in $11 million in brand value per season. Remember when I said our eyes lit up at the question, “how much is this worth?” This valuation made us go 🤨🤔. Being the data nerds that we are, we dug into this a little deeper.
We started back at the beginning and looked at the NBA. We analyzed the Chicago Bulls patch, a reputable, competitive team. We found that their jersey patch received $2.4 million in brand valuation on broadcast tv - about a million dollars over the league average in Nielsen’s report. And then we added in the layer that we feel everyone seems to be forgetting about, SOCIAL! Why does everyone seem to forget the power of social media? While the Bulls patch received $2.4 million in brand valuations on broadcast tv, they received $14 million in brand value across social! This is why we pride ourselves on being holistic data nerds; because there’s always more to the story. Then our minds exploded from there realizing the brand potential across commerce sales and how these numbers don’t even include all of those eyeballs in attendance at the game (and don’t forget all of those fans that wear the latest jerseys 😉). This is what it means to be a holistic, data aggregation platform. Now, we don’t want to give you our secret sauce but, let's just say, that patch is looking to receive a greater brand value than $11 million.
The moral of the story here is to say that a sponsored jersey patch receives a return from more than just broadcast tv. It’s seen across social, it’s seen by those in attendance, it’s seen by those walking past someone in the latest jersey on the streets, it’s seen on the billboards utilizing the players in full jersey. All of this needs to be considered when thinking about how much a jersey patch is worth.