A general overall aerial view of the Chase Center on December 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Kirby Lee | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase has signed a multiyear sponsorship deal to be the first founding partner of Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s next expansion team.
The agreement will see the Chase Freedom logo appear as the Valkyries’ jersey patch when the team begins play in 2025. Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, owners of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, paid a $50 million expansion fee to land the rights to a team in California’s Bay Area in October 2023.
The multi-year deal is valued as a seven-figure investment, making it one of the largest jersey patch deals in the WNBA, according to industry sources. While the Valkyries’ jersey has not been revealed yet, the deal will see the Chase Freedom logo appear on the left shoulder of both the home and away jerseys. Both the Valkyries and Chase declined to comment on deal terms.
Jess Smith, president of the Golden State Valkyries, said as the team was looking to secure a sponsor for one of its key assets, finding a partner that “wanted to enhance our fan experience” was critical. Chase has been a long-term partner of the Warriors, signing a 20-year deal for the naming rights to the team’s arena in 2016 worth at least a reported $300 million, then the largest naming rights deal in the NBA. The Valkyries will also play its games at the Chase Center, located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
“This isn’t just a billboard – when someone sees Chase and the Valkyries together, I want them to know why,” Smith said.
Carla Hassan, JPMorgan Chase chief marketing officer, said that the Bay Area is a “priority market” for the financial services company, with more than 5,000 employees and two million customers in the region, presenting another opportunity to build on the work it’s already doing with the Warriors and the arena.
While JPMorgan Chase has a vast sports sponsorship portfolio that includes naming rights deals with MLS’s Inter Miami and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks as well as significant sponsorships with Madison Square Garden and the U.S. Open, among others, Hassan said partnering with a WNBA team “was a really good opportunity for us.”
