Arent Fox Advises Credit Karma in Jersey Patch Sponsorship with Houston Rockets
In addition to the jersey patch, the multi-year deal includes a substantial in-arena and online presence, and the support of team community engagement efforts, along with Credit Karma Money becoming the presenting partner of the Rockets’ “First Shot” pre-game program. San Francisco Managing Partner and Sports Practice Leader Richard Brand led a team from Arent Fox that included Intellectual Property Partner Amy McFarland and Associate Zachary Welsh.
Richard Brand
Named by Hackney Publications as one of The Top 100 Law Firms with Sports Practices You Need to Know About,’ Arent Fox’s Sports team regularly advises sports organizations (leagues, conferences, teams, national governing bodies), sponsors, and investors. Our focus includes acquisitions and sales of sports franchises, naming rights and sponsorship, properties and events, media and technology (including emerging technologies), governance, intellectual property, sports betting and fantasy sports, compliance, and investigations.
This transaction is just the latest major naming rights and sponsorship transaction handled by Arent Fox. Recent highlights include:
- Representing SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park in a groundbreaking twenty-year naming rights and sponsorship transaction with SoFi that makes the digital personal finance company the exclusive naming rights sponsor of SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams, and the official partner of each of the teams as well as a partner of YouTube Theater and the surrounding entertainment district.
- Representing SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park in a multi-year partnership for Google Cloud to power SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park’s digital innovation experiences—and YouTube to become the official naming rights partner of “YouTube Theater,” a 6,000-seat performance venue at Hollywood Park, and the official video streaming sponsor of the Rams, Chargers, SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park.
- Serving as outside counsel to Amazon in a naming rights and sponsorship transaction for the “Climate Pledge Arena,” home of Seattle’s NHL team and WNBA’s Seattle Storm, and which will be the first net zero carbon certified arena in the world.
- Back-to-back naming rights and sponsorship transactions for brand new MLS Stadiums: Q2 Stadium in Austin on behalf of client Q2, and TQL Stadium in Cincinnati on behalf of client TQL.
- Representing the Miami Heat in a multi-year sponsorship transaction with AT&T, pursuant to which AT&T is designated the Official Sponsor and 5G Innovation Partner of the Miami Heat NBA franchise and the arena in which it plays, with a focus on applying AT&T’s technology to enhance live and virtual fan experiences, and on expanding diversity, equity and inclusion, and community.