Hornets Venom GT, the NBA 2K League affiliate team of the Charlotte Hornets, has announced online collectables marketplace GoCollect as its first-ever jersey sponsor.
This is the first season in the league for Hornets Venom GT, and GoCollect is the first of the team’s partners to not come from an existing Hornets Sports & Entertainment relationship.
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Jacob Gallagher, Chief Revenue Officer of Hornets Sports & Entertainment, commented in a release: “We are excited to partner with GoCollect as we prepare to begin our inaugural season in the NBA 2K League. The jerseys of players, both physical and virtual, are prime locations for partner branding and we are pleased to have GoCollect join us in time for the first regular-season game in our team’s history.”
The Charlotte-based GoCollect is a comic book price guide website, but the company is soon expanding into other types of collectables, including video games and concert posters.
GoCollect branding will appear on the players’ physical jerseys as well as the in-game player jerseys, plus company branding will appear within the team’s digital court. Hornets Venom GT are the eighth team in the 23-team league to have “a partner logo in the marquee positions” for this season, according to a release.
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Jeff Meyer, Founder and CEO of GoCollect, added: “I see an extremely strong future for the professional sports leagues that follow the NBA’s vision of expanding into esports. I’ve long admired the culture and compassion the Hornets organisation has brought to the Charlotte community and was thrilled by the opportunity to partner on the inaugural season of Hornets Venom GT.”
The third NBA 2K League season began yesterday, alongside announcements that league matches would appear on ESPN and Sportsnet platforms. The season was originally planned to kick off in March in a new, larger Manhattan studio with audience seating, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans. Teams are currently playing online from their respective home markets for at least the first six weeks of the season.
Esports Insider says: Many NBA 2K League teams have taken advantage of their home markets to ink local partnerships, and this is another example of that. Good on the Hornets Venom GT for snagging a jersey sponsor for its debut season, too.