So far to this point, the NBA’s new deal allowing teams to have a jersey sponsor going into the 2017-18 season has created five new jersey sponsors for a few teams. The Philadelphia 76ers started things by agreeing to a deal with StubHub, the Sacramento Kings have Blue Diamond Almonds as a sponsor, the Boston Celtics enlisted General Electric as a new jersey advertiser, and the Cleveland Cavaliers became the latest team to have a jersey sponsor, and they went with Goodyear.
But the Utah Jazz made a new type of sponsorship, different from what other teams have done to this point. The Utah Jazz are looking to help fight cancer, and they enlisted Qualtrics’ ‘5 for the fight’ initiative to help them raise funds to reach quite the goal.
Here’s the announcement from Qualtrics formally announcing their new partnership with the Utah Jazz and the 5 for the fight initiative.
The Utah Jazz released more information about the new jersey sponsorship.
Our jersey patch will be #FiveForTheFight!
We hope to raise awareness and help drive contributions for cancer research. pic.twitter.com/7zeOe6dxcV
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 13, 2017
Our hope and goal is to raise 50 million dollars for cancer research.
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 13, 2017
Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today has more from Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith and Jazz president Steve Starks.
“This is the right thing to do,” Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith said. “As much as I would love to put Qualtrics on it, this idea of raising $50 million for cancer research was something we couldn’t stop thinking about it. The Jazz were open to our ideas and how we wanted to use the patch.”
“If you think about the symmetry … 5 For the Fight and five players on the court working together as a team and then you think about our fans who feel pride when they buy that jersey, now they can feel pride about the cause that that team is affiliated with and something we can all rally behind,” Jazz president Steve Starks said. “We think it’s really special and an opportunity to use the Jazz as a platform to do good. Credit to Qualtrics for thinking creatively and altruistically.”
