NBA, Spanish Bank Agree to $100 Million Sponsorship Deal

by Tom ZillerFiled under: WNBA, NBA Transactions, NBA D-League, Sports Business and MediaThe NBA has signed on Spanish financial giant BBVA to be its official bank for the tidy sum of $100 million over four years, reports Ken Belson of the New York Times. A BBVA/NBA press release confirmed the deal without talking turkey. BBVA currently sponsors La Liga, Spain's domestic football league which ranks as one of the best in the world.

The most immediate fruit of the deal is that, as you can see at right, the BBVA has already been added to the jerseys for the Atlanta Dream and Seattle Storm, the two teams competing in the WNBA Finals. The series tipped off Sunday afternoon, before the deal was reported, but the logos were already there (fairly prominently, I might add). Belson reports this is the first leaguewide jersey sponsorship for any of the NBA's properties. Several WNBA and NBA D-League teams have jersey sponsorship deals in place, and the NBA has allowed its teams to have sponsors for practice jerseys.

What's most interesting about the deal is that while it helps give BBVA a foothold in the United States -- the bank, largely through acquisition has 700 branches through the Southern and Western U.S. -- it also further presses the NBA's interests into Europe. Commissioner David Stern has shown no qualms about tapping foreign money to strengthen his league. This sponsorship is, outside of perhaps Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets, the biggest move in that direction. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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