Atlanta Hawks partner with Sharecare on jersey sponsorship

Update: The Hawks have officially announced the agreement. with Sharecare, denoted as a “multi-year partnership” with the organization. Beyond that, the official release details that Sharecare “will become the presenting sponsor of the Atlanta Hawks Radio Network and, with the Hawks, will create compelling content that will air on FOX Sports, the TV home of the franchise.”

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The NBA will begin rolling out sponsored jerseys for the 2017-2018 season and many teams in the league have already announced partnerships. While the Atlanta Hawks have not done so at this time, reports have emerged from both Zach Klein of WSB-TV and Tim Tucker of the AJC that the organization will be partnering with Sharecare on a five-year contract to be come the team’s official sponsor.

While financial details are not yet available, Hawks executive vice president and CRO Andrew Saltzman indicated to WSB that the jersey sponsorship deal is “the second largest annual partnership behind (Atlanta’s) Philips naming rights deal.” Sharecare chairman and CEO Jeff Arnold didn’t give much more information to the AJC but, in the same breath, he did indicate that the agreement is “not the lowest” and “not the highest” in the NBA world, indicating that it is worth somewhere between $2.5 million and $10 million annually.

That is, of course, a very wide range of outcomes but Arnold spoke glowingly about his company’s chance to partner with the Hawks in this way. (via WSB-TV)

“I get a step closer to the team. I have a huge passion for sports, but my real passion is how do I take technology and health care and improve people’s lives and I kind of get to do it in one partnership.”

The choice in partners also makes sense from the Hawks side in that it focuses on a broader mission of helping the community from a perspective of health. To that end, Arnold spoke to the AJC about the larger vision.

“Our vision here was, how do we empower people to take control of their health? I’ve always believed that there’s a powerful connection between, obviously, good health and sports and that sports teams, like the Hawks, have the power to convene people and inspire people. And so we looked at the patch and said that’s not an advertisement for Sharecare, it’s a movement.”

Though the influx of funding does not have a direct impact on Atlanta’s on-court product, the league-wide revenue source could certainly influence salary cap jumps in the future. For now, the Atlanta Hawks basketball club is unaffected by the change but the team’s jerseys will now have a patch, in concert with a Nike swoosh, and it will probably take some getting used to from a visual perspective.

Stay tuned.