At long last, the Washington Nationals have decided to put a corporate sponsor on their shirts and get the money that comes with it
Heading into the 2025 MLB season, 25 of the 30 teams had corporate sponsors who advertised on the teams jersey. However, the Washington Nationals were not one of those teams. Today, the team announced that this will change. They partnered with AARP, who will advertise on the sleeve of Nationals jersey’s.
NEXT GEN NATITUDE @AARP pic.twitter.com/Yiaw2D6FxV
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 30, 2025
For years, the Nats have seemed resistant to doing these kinds of things. The Nationals Park stadium name remains sponsor-less for example. It makes some sense, given recent history.
The Nationals last major corporate sponsorship deal turned into a disaster. When you go to Nationals Park, it is hard not to notice how much they advertise “Terra”. Now you might ask, what is this mysterious company.
Terra is a Crypto company the Nats signed a 5-year $40 million deal with back in February 2022. Well it is more appropriate to say Terra was a crypto company because it collapsed in May of 2022 shortly after the start of the deal. The founder of the company was arrested in Montenegro and extradited back to the States earlier this year.
Yet, Terra still adorns Nationals Park to this day. After all, a deal is a deal. Long story short, the Nats do not have the greatest recent history when it comes to big name sponsorship deals.
However, partnering with AARP is a very different proposition. The company is about as stable as it gets, especially compared to the wild west of cryptocurrency. Hopefully, this deal can help ownership find more money to back the team
These kinds of deals are basically free money for the team, so it is tough to pass them up. However, it is imperative that these deals are used for good and not purely as a way to enrich ownership. It is time for the Lerner family to open up their wallets again and hopefully this is a sign that spending could be on the way.