Brooklyn Nets sign new jersey patch deal with international sports tourism brand

The Nets continue to mine sports tourism for brand enhancement, choosing Berlin-based tourism brand for new jersey patch.

GetYourGuide, a Berlin-based international sports tourism group, is the new Brooklyn Nets new jersey patch sponsor, Sportico reported Friday.

GetYourGuide replaces WeBull, the online brokerage company. Neither Sportico nor BSE Global provided financial details on the new deal.

As part of the deal, GetYouGuide has also been named official travel experiences partner for the Nets. Along with its new uniform real estate, GetYourGuide will also receive international marketing rights to promote its partnership with Brooklyn via marketing, advertising, and digital campaigns.

WeBull broke records in 2021 when it agreed to pay BSE Global, the Nets and Liberty parent company, $30 million annually for a three-year deal that included jersey patch arrangements for the NBA and WNBA teams as well as the Nets GC, the team’s NBA2K team. That was 50% higher than the previous record.

The Nets, in addition to opening Barclays Center for tours, will make shootaround access and lounge visits available to the GetYourGuide platform, Sportico reported. The Nets like other pro sports teams offer behind-the-scenes looks at their arenas, stadiums and in some cases training facilities.

“What we want to do is really create sports experiences that maybe are a little bit more than attending a game,” BSE Global EVP for global partnerships Catherine Carlson told the sports business outlet. “We’re going to put some—I’m going to call it exclusive, team-inspired—experiences on GetYourGuide.

““The most important element in our search for a new jersey patch partner was a brand with shared values, and we have found that in GetYourGuide,” said Catherine Carlson, Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships at BSE Global, parent company of the Nets. “Through this partnership we will connect fans and travelers to unforgettable experiences that intersect basketball, fashion, food, music and the arts — The Brooklyn Way.”

The Nets will provide access to team-inspired experiences accessible through the GetYourGuide platform. They’ll also work with GetYourGuide to present a new content series where Nets, New York Liberty players, and both coaching staffs highlight their favorite spots in Brooklyn.

GetYourGuide already offers tours of Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium in New York and the O2 and Wembley Stadiums in London.

“There’s certainly this opportunity around New York,” GetYourGuide CMO Emil Martinsek said. “But the storytelling, you can do that to the international audience and to the local audience. It’s just powerful. That’s really why when this came up we felt this is the right kind of relationship to join.

“Our research said that 37% of international tourists coming into the country want to experience a sporting event,” Carlson said. “That’s where our creative juices got going, and we were really excited to build this out to a fairly substantial partnership.”

Jordi Fernández kicked off the GetYourGuide campaign Friday morning. He and the team promoted Randolph Beer in Downtown Brooklyn, Hifi Provisions at Sunset Park, and Liberty games at Barclays Center.

In a subsequent social media post, Fernández also took fans through the streets of Brooklyn, explaining his acclimation to the Brooklyn lifestyle and appreciation for the borough as a whole. The rookie coach also gave us a look at the new ad on a Brooklyn road jersey.

The Nets have been among the leaders in pushing international marketing of all sorts, with a three-person International Marketing Team and a five-person China Business Strategy Group. As we reported in August, the Nets are now among the most popular teams internationally with an NBA estimate of 53.6 million fans from the Philippines to Brazil and all points in between. That’s top 10. They currently rank third in popularity in the basketball hotbeds of China and France. Marketing fan experiences to international tourists only enhances the brand. More measurement data, more opportunity to market the team.

With that level of international recognition, the organization is a top candidate for sports tourism packages GetYourGuide puts together. Of course, the Nets, going back to the New Jersey days, are the most traveled NBA franchise and their last two ownership groups have been international with Mikhail Prokhorov and Joe and Clara Wu Tsai.

Moreover, this year, the Nets have large roster contingent from overseas with Ben Simmons from Australia, Dennis Schroder from Germany, Yongxi “Jacky” Cui from China, Killian Hayes from France, and Bojan Bogdanovic from Croatia. In addition, Cam Thomas was born in a U.S. military hospital in Japan where his mother was stationed an an Army enlisted officer.

And of course, the team’s head coach is from Spain, its general manager is from New Zealand and team governor from Taiwan and Canada.

• Brooklyn Nets Jersey Patch Sponsor Targets Tourists Worldwide – Jacob Feldman – Sportico