When the Washington Commanders secured an eight-year naming rights deal with Northwest Federal Credit Union for their Landover stadium last week, they did something that their baseball neighbors have not done in their 16 years at Nationals Park: They secured millions annually in exchange for the rights to rename their home.
After the Commanders’ deal — brokered despite the team playing in a maligned stadium while searching for its next home — the Nationals are the only D.C.-area franchise without such an arrangement. They are a similar rarity nationally: Of the 30 teams in MLB, they are the only one with neither a stadium naming rights deal nor a jersey patch sponsorship — the only team, therefore, that hasn’t gained millions in revenue from either potential stream.
But now, with a core of young players and a brighter future seemingly imminent, the Nationals are making a renewed push to reach such agreements, according to people familiar with their plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they would not compromise current or future negotiations. Soon — optimistically measured here in months, not years — they might tap into the streams of revenue used by their rivals for years. Exactly why they waited this long remains unclear.
Some Nationals executives characterized ownership’s approach to the process as maddeningly stubborn: Instead of taking something less than they envision for the stadium naming rights, Lerner family members would rather take nothing, potentially costing the Nationals millions of dollars annually — think, the price of someone such as New York Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez. Others see more calculated patience: Rather than selling the naming rights just to sell them, the Lerners have waited until the Nationals are the most appealing partner, in terms of future returns and on-field product, to maximize the return.
For example, the Nationals pushed for a naming rights deal in the years before 2018, when their star-studded roster was contending annually and they could promise potential partners the exposure of the All-Star Game they were hosting that year. No deal came together. The World Series win in 2019 offered a new chance to appeal to would-be corporate partners. Then came the pandemic.
But as a young core is starting to coalesce on South Capitol Street, the Nationals are as active as they have been in years in pursuing naming rights deals, according to multiple people familiar with their plans.
Exactly what those deals might look like is uncertain; they have varied dramatically from city to city.
The Baltimore Orioles, for example, sold their jersey patches to local financial power T. Rowe Price in a deal that also included extensive signage on the scoreboard and in the dugout — a compromise that allowed them to preserve the beloved Oriole Park at Camden Yards moniker. The Boston Red Sox did something similar with MassMutual to preserve the Fenway Park name, selling jersey patches and significant outfield signage for a reported $17 million annually in lieu of stadium naming rights. The New York Yankees topped that haul with a reported $25 million annually from Starr Insurance.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and other major market clubs — which the Nationals would consider themselves, for the purpose of such negotiations — added unrelated jersey patch agreements to their existing stadium rights deals with major national corporations that have local ties.
The Nationals seem likely to pursue a similar path. Naming rights deals for MLB clubs tend to be long term: In April, the Cleveland Guardians agreed to a 13-year extension with stadium rights partner Progressive. Citizens Bank is in the 21st year of a 25-year, $95 million deal with the Phillies. The Mets famously signed a 20-year deal worth $400 million to call their home Citi Field.
Jersey patch deals, meanwhile, tend to be shorter. MLB permitted teams to sell space on their jerseys starting with the 2023 season, and the Nationals were not alone in entering this season without a deal in place. Multiple teams, such as the Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs, secured those deals only this year. For teams that also sell stadium naming rights, like the Nationals plan to do, jersey contracts are typically much less lucrative than the massive deals the Red Sox and Yankees secured, which covered room both on their sleeves and in their stadiums.
Still, for an organization that has been committed to shedding salary for several years, spent less than $20 million in free agency each of the past two winters and deferred money in Joey Gallo’s $5 million deal to seemingly lighten the present financial burden, millions in extra revenue could provide a helpful payroll boost — that is, of course, if the Lerner family decided to put the added revenue into the team’s payroll. With veteran starting pitcher Patrick Corbin’s deal coming off the books this winter, the Nationals will enter next year with an incredibly inexpensive roster relative to the ones they succeeded with in the 2010s — and an extra $10 million to $20 million in commitments could make a major difference.
Then again, pursuing naming rights and jersey patch deals does not mean the Nationals will secure them, particularly in time to be helpful this offseason. And making those deals does not guarantee the money they yield will be felt on the field. Either way, the only team in baseball that has never signed a naming rights deal or jersey patch contract seems to be making a more concerted effort to secure both.
