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John Keim, ESPN Staff Writer
ASHBURN, Va. — Less than a month into Josh Harris’ ownership of the Washington Commanders, Anheuser-Busch has returned as a major sponsor of the franchise.
It’s the second big sponsorship announcement in the past week for the franchise. On Wednesday, the team announced Verizon had become a sponsor, agreeing to a two-year deal.
Anheuser-Busch had ended its longtime sponsorship of the team in March 2022, amid investigations of previous owner Dan Snyder by Congress and the NFL, costing the team approximately $3 million dollars in revenue, a team source said at the time.
Though the company did not publicly state Snyder was the reason it dropped Washington — Anheuser-Busch had cut ties with other teams around the same time — sources in the Commanders’ organization believed that to be the reason.
“We are excited to have the Commanders back on our NFL roster,” Matt Davis, VP of partnerships at Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement. “Our history with the Washington franchise runs deep.”
As part of the new multi-year deal with Anheuser-Busch, Washington’s offensive players will wear a Folds of Honor patch on their practice jerseys.
The company sponsors 26 other NFL teams as well as 24 players.
Harris became owner of the team July 20, after NFL owners voted unanimously to approve his deal with Snyder, who had owned the team since 1999.
In late March, team president Jason Wright told ESPN that, after a new owner took over, “There will be growth in suite sales, growth in sponsorship sales because there [are] people choosing not to do business with us that will choose to do business with us now.”
Source: www.espn.com