Yesterday, the Golden State Warriors announced a $60 million dollar deal with Japanese e-commerce giant, Rakuten -- $20 million a year over 3 years. Rakuten's logo will be shown in form of a patch on at the left shoulder of the jersey -- the deal is fundamentally similar like a stadium naming rights deal. Rakuten is not sponsorship shy either and previously committed $235M for 4 years to be on FC Barcelona's kit. Clearly, Rakuten sees the team's value, especially when it includes an all-star roster like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.

The 2016 NBA Champions currently hold the most lucrative patch deal and there have been 14 total deals between $5-7m on average. The second highest deal being the Cavaliers (with Goodyear), estimated to be at about $10 million per year. The entire list is as follows:

Team

Sponsor

Annual Deal (Est.)

Atlanta Hawks

Sharecare

$2.5-10 million

Boston Celtics

General Electric

$7+ million

Brooklyn Nets

Infor

$8 million

Cleveland
Cavaliers 

Goodyear

$10+ million

Denver Nuggets

Western Union Bank

$5-10 million

Detroit Pistons

Flagstar Bank

$5-10 million

Golden State Warriors

Rakuten

$20 million

Milwaukee Bucks

Harley-Davidson

$2.5-6 million

Minnesota Timberwolves

Fitbit

$3-8 million

Orlando Magic

Disney

$5-10 million

Philadelphia 76ers

Stubhub

$5 million

Sacramento Kings

Blue Diamond Almonds.

$5 million

Toronto Raptors

Sun Life

$5+ million

Utah Jazz

Qualtrics

$4 million

Who is (most deserving) to be next?

Looking beyond the patch's financial impact, here's what I love about it -- it provides an opportunity to more deeply integrate advertising into a sport that we've never seen done before, naturally making it disruptive in nature. However, more importantly, it represents a new alignment between brands, teams, and fans in a way that can result in highly increased consumer activation. That said, in order of most deserving and highly anticipated sponsorships that remain, here are my top 5 (via Power Rankings):

Power Rank

Team

#1

Washington Wizards

#2

Los Angeles Lakers

#3

Miami Heat

#4

Dallas Mavericks

#5

New York Knicks

Washington Wizards

As I'd imagine they currently are, brands should be courting (pun unintended) the Wizards incredibly hard. Washington, D.C. truly provides a one-of-a-kind backdrop to position a brand within the epicenter of both power & influence, almost guaranteeing that strategic partner to get in front of key government & policy decision makers, amongst other reasons.

The Talent

The Wizards are led by John Wall, one of the top players in entire NBA and Bradley Beal & Otto Porter are top-level talents, both locked with long-term contracts. The solid overall roster ensures a competitive team for quite some time and having a roster of such talent will surely gain exposure on both the national & international stage. Being that the NBA Patch deals are only guaranteed for 3-years, the Wizards will certainly be competitive during that time period.

Millennials, millennials, millennials

D.C. & Baltimore are 2 of the top 10 US cities for millennial density leaving it as one of the most sought after demographics.

Deep regional scale

With D.C. & Baltimore combined, they represent the 3rd largest designated market audience (DMA) in the country.

Global impact

D.C. is one of the most international cities in the country with 1 in 5 citizens being foreign born. D.C. is critical for many international brands to gain access to expanding their reach into the US.

Affluence

The DMV (DC/MD/VA) is one of the most affluent and top earning markets in the country, which would position a brand in front of those with significant discretionary income. The DMV also boasts being #1 in education.

Speculation on who the right brand fit for the Wizards are reported to be are currently between GEICO, Mars Inc., Capital One, and Marriott. Capital One could represent continuity, especially with the recent Capital One Arena stadium naming rights announcement. Other potential suitors could include Hilton, Nestle, Volkswagen, & Booz Allen Hamilton with Global HQ's being in the region. Or perhaps the Wizards want to intentionally consider alternative options.

Either way, brands should be knocking down their door. They're the clear number one and I wouldn't be surprised if the financials of the deal is on the upper echelon just like the Cavs and Warriors.