The New York Knicks tip off their season next week with high expectations after their best season in more than a decade and the addition of four-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns. The club will hit the court with a new logo on its jersey.
Madison Square Garden Sports, which owns the Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers, signed a multi-year agreement with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi to have “Experience Abu Dhabi” as the team’s patch partner starting with the 2024-25 season. DCT Abu Dhabi signed a separate marketing agreement with Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which owns the team’s venue.
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The logo will appear on Knicks home and away game jerseys, as well as on the club’s practice jersey and warmup shirts. Additionally, jerseys sold at Madison Square Garden’s in-arena retail locations will feature the Experience Abu Dhabi logo.
Financial terms were not released, but the Knicks are likely at the top end of the NBA scale. The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets previously signed deals in the $30 million-a-year range, while the Golden State Warriors are an outlier, earning $45 million annually from Rakuten.
“Our partnership with the New York Knicks and the MSG Family of Companies aligns with our mission to boost Abu Dhabi’s global visibility as part of our Tourism Strategy 2030,” H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, DCT Abu Dhabi chairman, said in a statement.
The deal comes one day after another company controlled by the Dolan family, Sphere Entertainment, announced an agreement with DCT Abu Dhabi for the United Arab Emirates capital to be the home of the second Sphere. Jim Dolan long envisioned replicas of his Las Vegas Sphere in global locations, but he wanted financial partners for these costly projects, which reached $2.3 billion in Vegas. DCT Abu Dhabi will fund construction, with Sphere employees providing their expertise.
The Knicks had the Sphere logo on their jerseys last season. That agreement was reached just as the season started after a jersey patch deal between the Knicks and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority’s Riyadh Season fell apart.
In 2019, the NBA launched its International Marketing Program, which allowed teams to sign two international sponsorship deals. It expanded that to 10 partners in 2022. DCT Abu Dhabi will have global rights to use Madison Square Garden marks as part of these agreements.
The Knicks tip off their season Tuesday against the defending champion Boston Celtics.
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