POWERED BY SPND · SPONSORUNITED
2026 MLB
Sponsorship
Report
MLB team sponsorship reached $2.12B in 2026, up 7.3%. Partnerships are getting deeper, not just more numerous.
TOTAL SPND
$0.00B
+7.3% YoY
TEAM DEALS
0
+1.2% YoY
UNIQUE BRANDS
0
+3.6% YoY
SLEEVE PATCHES
30 of 30
Full adoption
TOP STORYLINE · THE 5-YEAR TRENDS
Five Years. Five Big Plays. How MLB Sponsorship Has Changed.
Over the past five seasons, MLB sponsorship has grown in size, value, and sophistication. But not every shift has had the same impact on the business. From the changing dynamics of local partnerships to the rise of premium assets, we break down five defining trends—from a single to a grand slam—building toward the biggest story in baseball sponsorship.
SINGLE
MLB added 367 brands, but local partnerships are getting shorter
Single-team brands accounted for 76% of net brand growth since 2022, even as one-year retention among new single-team sponsors fell from 61% to 49%. Why a single: Incremental growth that expands the market, but raises questions about durability.
- Unique brands: 2,050 → 2,417
- Brands at 10+ teams: 28 → 29 — national reach flat
- Multi-team entrants retain far better (73%–100%)
1 · RANKINGS & SPND
Who leads MLB partnerships?
SPND Overview
Avg deal size
$590K
+5.9% YoY
Five-year SPND growth
+57%
2022–2026 · vs +17% deal growth
Team Rankings
Top 5 by sponsorship revenue growth
Top 5 by deal count
Tampa Bay leads revenue growth; Cincinnati leads deal count. More deals do not always mean more sponsorship revenue.
Top 5 Brands by Team Reach
Excluding league office partners
| Brand | Category | Teams | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hankook | Auto | 26 | 46 |
| Coca-Cola | Beverage - Non-Alcoholic | 23 | 952 |
| Toyota | Auto | 18 | 929 |
| Chick-fil-A | Quick Serve Restaurants | 18 | 429 |
| Progressive Insurance | Insurance | 18 | 242 |
Top brands by SPND · parent company, unranked
AB InBev
Bank of America
Toyota
Molson Coors
Coca-Cola
Toyota, Chick-fil-A and Progressive Insurance tie at 18 teams; total assets break the tie.
Top 5 Categories by SPND
Sponsorship spend by category
Growth to watch
- Technology +13.04% — ElevenLabs and WHOOP enter MLB.
- Beverage - Non-Alcoholic +9.73% — existing players with more significant activations + new players becoming more prevalent.
- Financial +12.0% — premium sleeve deals fuel the largest spend category.
Go deeper with SPND
Explore SPNDNotable New Brands in 2026
New brand · Playing surface naming rights
UNIQLO×Los Angeles Dodgers
UNIQLO entered MLB by securing playing surface naming rights with the Dodgers, one of the leading new brand entries of 2026.
New brand · Jersey sleeve patch
Airwallex×San Francisco Giants
Airwallex took over the Giants' jersey sleeve patch from Chevrolet, part of Financial's sweep of every new or switched patch deal this season.
New brand · Five team partnerships
Kalshi
The prediction-market platform partnered with the Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers, Padres and Giants, spanning in-stadium signage, radio and fan activations — including naming rights to Dodger Stadium's Gold Glove Bar. Baseball trading volume on Kalshi is up 36x year over year.
New brand · Jersey sleeve patch
CME Group×Chicago White Sox
CME Group debuted as the White Sox's first jersey sleeve partner, another Financial brand claiming premium patch inventory.
New brand · AI voice technology
ElevenLabs×San Francisco Giants
The AI voice and audio company became a multi-year partner of the Giants and Presenting Sponsor of the Champions Suite at Oracle Park, deploying real-time AI fan support and multilingual in-game audio across the ballpark.
Listed together, not ranked by estimated spend.
2 · MARKET & GROWTH
MLB sponsorships are growing deeper—and more valuable.
2022–2026
SPONSORSHIP REVENUE
+57%
$1.35B → $2.12B
Total deals
+17%
3,195 → 3,732
Assets per deal
8.32
Up from 7.08
Sponsorship revenue has grown more than three times as fast as deal volume since 2022. Brands are investing in more comprehensive partnerships, with the average number of assets per deal rising for five consecutive seasons.
In 35% of team-seasons, total deal count moved in the opposite direction from deeper partnerships — counting deals alone doesn't tell the whole story.
Jersey sleeve patches reach full adoption across MLB
Teams with sleeve patches
30 / 30
Up from 16 in 2023
Average patch SPND
$8.6M
+1.3% year over year
All 30 MLB teams now carry a jersey sleeve sponsor, completing a four-season expansion of one of the league's most prominent commercial assets. Financial brands secured all three new or switched patch partnerships in 2026, reinforcing the category's growing role in premium sponsorship inventory.
New patch deals signed in 2026
We estimate those three deals generated more than $20M in sponsorship revenue.
Go deeper with SPND
Explore SPNDInside the Sponsorship Inventory
New Brand Entrants
New brands
632
vs 549 exits · net +83
Entered at one team
93%
Entry is overwhelmingly local
Top new category
Const. & Industrial
56 new brands
Brand Retention & Churn
Teams retained 73.3% of deals. Financial led at 91%, while 549 brands exited MLB.
3 · ATHLETE ENDORSEMENTS
Endorsement leaders. Untapped audiences.
Top 5 Most Endorsed Players
| Player | Endorsements |
|---|---|
 Cal Raleigh | 17 |
| Julio Rodriguez | 16 |
 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | 13 |
| George Springer | 10 |
 Bobby Witt Jr. | 9 |
472 player-brand endorsements are active, down from 627 a year earlier. Endorsement retention runs at 30% — far below teams' 73.3% — athlete deals are short-cycle by nature.
Players to Watch
| Player | Followers | Growth | Endorsements | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pete Crow-Armstrong | 291,059 | +62% | 6 | 5 |
 Jacob Misiorowski | 118,582 | +161% | 3 | 3 |
 Junior Caminero | 634,908 | +222% | 8 | 6 |
 Cam Schlittler | 247,224 | No prior baseline | 0 | 0 |
 Jordan Walker | 132,336 | +101% | 1 | 1 |
Caminero leads this shortlist in audience growth (+222%); Schlittler has 247,224 followers and no tracked marketing endorsements. His equipment-only relationships with adidas and Mizuno are excluded.
METHODOLOGY
About this report.
- SponsorUnited's proprietary data (deal, asset, and social data), pulled 13 October 2026 prior to season close. SPND figures, which were supplied by SponsorUnited Business Intelligence, were gathered prior to season close and are subject to change.
- For this report, a deal is one brand sponsoring one team in one season with at least one sponsor asset. Sub-brands are counted separately from parent companies.
- Trends compare 2022–2026. Athlete endorsements cover a rolling twelve-month window; social data spans Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok.
- A new brand entrant has no prior-season relationship with any MLB team.
- Average deal size and deal counts are measured at different levels—parent company and individual brand, respectively—and should not be used to calculate ratios.
- Spend is reported as league totals, category totals, deal-level averages and team revenue growth — not per team, brand or deal.
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