NFL Sponsorship Deals Top Record $2.3B, Travis Kelce Leads All Players
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at 08:41PM By Barry Janoff
January 30, 2024: The NFL’s massive money machine keeps powering forward, with team sponsorship revenue reaching a record $2.35 billion this past season, up 15%, from $2.05 billion last season.
The combined NFL sponsorship revenue in the Top 10 categories surpassed the total sponsorship revenues of the MLB, NHL, MLS, and NBA, according to the just-released NFL Marketing Partnerships 2023 Report from global sports and entertainment intelligence platform SponsorUnited.
"This NFL season was a landmark one in commercial success," Bob Lynch, founder and CEO, said via SponsorUnited.
The leading categories were Ticketing, Gaming, Auto and Healthcare categories, “which collectively comprise more than half the sponsorship growth of the Top Ten brand categories.”
The brands with the most endorsement deals in the NFL are topped by Nike (36 endorsement deals) and EA's NFL Madden Series (31 player deals).
Verizon follows with 30 endorsements, with Procter & Gamble's Bounty (26) and Activision’s Call of Duty (20 individual endorsements) also in the Top Five, according to SponsorUnited.
The Energy Drinks subcategory topped all areas with 400% increase in deals year-over-year.
Other sectors that have experienced significant deal growth YoY include the Armed Forces subcategory (333%), the Government category due to Tourism Board activations (57%) and the Apparel & Accessory category (48%), “indicating increased interest in fashion-forward collaborations.”
For a seventh straight year, the Jacksonville Jaguars — despite having the smallest social following among NFL teams — led the league in sponsorship deals, approaching 200.
However, according to Lynch, "While the Dallas Cowboys continued their 15-plus year run in leading overall team sponsorship revenues, the largest year-over-year percentage growth came from the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Denver Broncos."
Photo: State FarmAmong players, Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce and free agent defensive lineman Isaac Rochell “exemplify the power of leveraging one's personal brand both on and off the field to forge new business opportunities,” according to the NFL Marketing Partnerships 2023 Report.
Kelce has two Super Bowl rings (LIV, LVII) and is now playing in his fourth Super Bowl over the past five seasons. SponsorUnited said he tops all NFL players with 25 deals, including Nike, State Farm, Subway, Campbell Chunky Soup, Pfizer, Experian and DirecTV.
Rochell has gained prominence via social media, mostly on TikTok typically featuring his wife, digital content creator and social media influencer Allison Kuch.
Rochell has spent seven seasons on the active rosters of the Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns and, most recently, Las Vegas Raiders.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kuch and Rochell have signed with talent, entertainment and sports company UTA “to help the couple expand into audio, unscripted TV and other business ventures."
SponsorUnited said Rochell nearly tripled his portfolio from ten deals last year. Their partnerships currently include DraftKings, Dicks Sporting Goods and Wilson, Olay, Burt’s Bees, Alo and Lululemon.
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