The Knicks’ corporate sister The Sphere will feature its logo on the basketball team’s jersey patch this season after owner James Dolan was reportedly looking for $30 million a year from an outside sponsor.
The team will debut The Sphere patch on Wednesday night when it takes the court at Madison Square Garden to battle the visiting Boston Celtics in the first game of the NBA season.
The logo for Sphere, the mammoth $2.3 billion Las Vegas venue that opened to great fanfare last month with a concert by Irish rock band U2, will appear on all Knicks game jerseys both home and away as well as the team’s practice jerseys.
Knicks jerseys sold online and at retail shops inside MSG will also feature the Sphere patch, according to a press release issued by the team.
A spokesperson for MSG Sports declined to offer specifics on the financial details of the arrangement.
“The MSG family of companies has an unrivaled portfolio of premium assets, and we are committed to ensuring that the strength of our brands and unique global reach continue to benefit one another in powerful ways,” David Hopkinson, president & COO of MSG Sports, said in a statement.
MSG Sports is the parent company of the Knicks while The Sphere is owned by Sphere Entertainment.
Dolan owns a controlling interest in both companies. MSG Sports’ stock price was trading flat at around $170 a share on Tuesday.
Sphere Entertainment’s stock price rose by more than 3.6% on Tuesday.
Dolan is taking a page out of the playbook of another NBA owner, Miami Heat boss Micky Arison.
The Heat announced earlier this month that their jerseys would feature the logo of Carnival Cruise Lines — both of which are owned by Arison.
The Knicks were one of four teams that didn’t have a corporate sponsorship patch on their jerseys last season.
The NBA began allowing teams to feature the logos of corporate sponsors on their jerseys at the start of the 2017-2018 regular season.
For five seasons, the Knicks were reportedly paid between $15 million and $16 million annually to feature the logo of tech company Squarespace.
But the two entities parted ways before last season as their original deal expired. The Knicks were reportedly shopping for a corporate sponsor willing to pony up an estimated $30 million, according to Sports Business Journal.
Dolan reportedly wanted a deal on part with the $30 million per year that brokerage firm Webull was paying the rival Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets-Webull arrangement exceeded the deal signed between the Golden State Warriors and Japan-based e-commerce giant Rakuten for $20 million per season — the most lucrative at the time it was signed before the 2017-2018 season.
“Squarespace has been an excellent partner, but we do expect to see some substantial increase when we renew or find a new partner in that space,” Andrew Lustgarten, former MSG Sports CEO, said during a May 2022 earnings call.
“It’s very important who the partner is, is close to our identity, so we’re very thoughtful about who would come on our jerseys.”
The Post has sought comment from Squarespace.
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