The incubator space, set to open later this year as part of the Sixers’ 125,000-square-foot training complex and headquarters in the city, will count StubHub among those that will advise entrepreneurs.
For the San Francisco-based online ticket marketplace, it’s a chance to impact the business community in South Jersey and Philadelphia.
“Being headquartered in Silicon Valley, where a lot of these companies sort of come to life and grow and mature, I think we can bring a unique perspective,” Geoff Lester, head of partnerships and business development for StubHub, said in an interview.
Formally unveiled Monday morning, the partnership calls for StubHub’s logo to be featured on the front left of the NBA team’s game jerseys starting in the 2017-2018 season. It is the first jersey patch sponsorship among the major four sports leagues in U.S. history, following the NBA board of governors’ approval last month of a three-year pilot program to do so.
Terms were not disclosed, but Bloomberg reported that StubHub agreed to pay $5 million a year for a 2.5-by-2.5-inch patch with its logo on it, citing an unnamed league official with knowledge of the deal.
“Our partnership with StubHub continues to generate progressive and forward-thinking platforms created to improve the fan experience and advance our industry,” Scott O’Neil, Sixers CEO, said in a prepared statement. “The essence of our relationship with StubHub is our shared culture and ambition to innovate, which drives us to reimagine traditional partnership activation and continually ask, ‘what if?’”
Earlier this year, the Sixers announced StubHub as their official ticketing partner and launched a new platform to give their fans “unparalleled access to primary and secondary ticket inventory with a seamless user and purchase experience.” The new platform launches next season.
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