The Red Sox have entered into a 10-year agreement with MassMutual in which the Springfield-based insurer will become the club’s signature sponsor beginning next season.
As part of the agreement, the Red Sox will wear ad patches on their jerseys for the first time ever in 2023. MassMutual’s logo will be featured on either the left or right sleeve of every Red Sox uniform, as was revealed at Fenway Park on Wednesday.
When Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association ratified a new collective bargaining agreement back in March, teams were granted the ability to put advertisements on their uniforms for the first time in league history starting in 2023.
Over the summer, Terry Lefton of Sports Business Journal reported that MassMutual had agreed to sponsor the Red Sox for $17 million per year over the next 10 years. In addition to the jersey patches, MassMutual will install an 80-foot sign over the center field scoreboard, replacing the iconic John Hancock sign, and have highly visible messaging throughout Fenway Park.
For team president and CEO Sam Kennedy, this new partnership not only represents an exciting opportunity for the Red Sox, but for the baseball industry as a whole.
“Making a deal with MassMutual made a lot of sense in so many ways,” Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said. “Just being headquartered here, a company that’s 50 years older than the Red Sox even, being founded in Springfield, a local connection, made a ton of sense. Their shared commitment to the community, giving back, creating this program that’s going to bring Boston Public School kids in to have a learning lab that is Fenway Park will be really exciting for us and we’re looking forward to that.
“For the baseball industry, it’s huge,” he added. “It opens up a new revenue opportunity that didn’t exist before. At the end of the day, huge credit to Commissioner (Rob) Manfred for pushing forward on this. We needed this new opportunity. Our job is to grow the game and that includes growing the revenue opportunity which ultimately gets reinvested into players and into our ballparks and facilities. It’s a great thing for baseball and we’re excited about it.”
(Picture of Fenway Park: Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
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