The ACC has its first school-specific jersey patch deal, as Cal athletics has reached a deal with the AI platform Dialpad, co-ADs Jay Larson and Jenny Simon-O’Neill told Sports Business Journal. The multiyear agreement, which is set to be unveiled on Tuesday, will span all 30 of Cal’s varsity sports and is believed to be the largest sponsorship deal in the athletic department’s history. Exact terms were not immediately available.
“It really fits into the ethos of UC Berkeley,” Simon-O’Neill said. “We’re the No. 1 startup university in the nation. This is an AI company that’s based in the Bay founded by Craig Walker, a Cal alum. It’s just a really beautiful partnership from that standpoint.”
The agreement will include a slew of assets highlighted by the jersey patch, along with naming rights to the “Dialpad Field Club” -- the largest club space at California Memorial Stadium -- on-field apron logos and TV broadcast visibility behind one end zone. The company will also receive signage and promotion inside California Memorial Stadium and Haas Pavilion for Cal football and basketball home games, radio broadcast spots during all Cal football games, and digital advertising via CalBears.com. Dialpad, too, will be named the “official AI platform for fan experience of Cal athletics,” a measure that includes its AI platform being utilized across ticket sales, service, corporate partnerships, fundraising and internal teams.
The patch itself marks one of the broadest jersey patch deals in the country given Cal’s breadth of varsity sports and, in particular, Olympic sports. Simon-O’Neill noted the preference of the school was to sell the jersey patch wholesale across the department and efforts focused there.
“It was important that this was an all sports partnership,” Larson added. “That was something that we set out to achieve at the outset. We have a proud history of success in football, basketball, and of course our Olympic sports and it’s great to be able to partner with a company that shares those values, appreciates comprehensive excellence and wanted to be a part of not just the football program and the momentum that has been gained there, but our department as a whole across all 30 sports.”
Cal becomes the 23rd school in the country to announce a sponsorship patch deal since the NCAA approved a rule change allowing such deals in January. Learfield, whose Cal Sports Properties Team was responsible for brokering the Dialpad agreement, has represented 14 of those departments.
“You’re seeing a common theme here that a lot of these deals have leadership that have relationships and trust already in place and have a shared vision about what’s important,” Learfield EVP Andrew Wheeler told SBJ. “This deal like others, what’s important here is what Dialpad’s trying to engage with is not sponsorship. ... They really were excited about something unique that could be done on scale around AI and how AI can help fans and help fan environment, fan engagement and help all aspects of an athletic department continue to evolve their operation in a time and age where being more efficient is on everyone’s radar.”
