A senior at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, Andrew Khoury is studying kinesiology and works as setup manager for the Charleston Battery soccer team. Beyond his educational and work-related pursuits, South Carolina’s Andrew Khoury is an avid basketball fan.
Judging from television ratings and corporate sponsorship, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is catching up to the National Football League (NFL) in popularity. While television viewership was up 8 percent from last season, the NBA also received an estimated $1.12 billion in corporate sponsorship during the 2017-18 season. It was the first time sponsorship figures exceeded $1 billion and put the NBA only second to the NFL, which received $1.25 billion in sponsor money. It also represents a 31 percent increase from the year prior, primarily driven by the league's decision to allow teams to sell ad space on their jerseys in the form of small patches.
Twenty-one of the league's 30 teams signed sponsorship agreements with companies such as Goodyear, Harley-Davidson, General Electric, and the dating app Bumble. Most patch deals are two years in length and average $6.5 million per year. During the 2017-18 season, the league received $137 million as a result of those deals.
