Home Depot finally signs with its hometown Hawks, leading an opening-week rush of NBA team sponsors

The Home Depot was founded in Atlanta in 1978 and has its headquarters there. Until this week, the company had no formal sponsorship with the city’s NBA team. That changed Monday, when the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena named the retailer their Official Home Improvement Partner in a multiyear agreement. It was one of several team sponsorships announced in the days before Tuesday’s opening night.

Tom Friend reported that the deal came after more than a year of negotiations and that it makes the Hawks Home Depot’s only NBA partner. It is also the first formal sponsorship between the club and the retailer since Tony Ressler bought the team in 2015. The Hawks negotiated in-house, and Home Depot worked through the agency Octagon. Financial terms were not disclosed.

What Home Depot gets inside State Farm Arena

The centerpiece is naming rights to the Atlanta Hawks Fan Zone, the arena’s interactive area, and to Harry the Hawk’s Nest, which becomes “Harry the Hawk’s Nest, Built by The Home Depot.” The retailer’s branding will also appear on the 200-level Impact Board, on courtside and concourse LED boards, on the State Farm Arena digital marquee, and in in-game shot-tracking and stats graphics.

Fans will notice the deal in the seats as well. A season-long promotion called “Build the Noise” will hand out hammer sticks, a version of thunder sticks, at all 41 regular-season home games and every Hawks home playoff game. Home Depot will also present the Hawks Value Pack ticket offer, the team’s “Built in the G” YouTube series and the roster page on the team’s website. The agreement also covers the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate, with branding, community ticketing and player appearances.

Andrew Saltzman, the Hawks’ and State Farm Arena’s president of business enterprise and chief commercial officer, said the arena signage was not the main point. “Certainly as we approach this opportunity with Home Depot, it was never about hanging signs,” he said. “It was how do we impact the community? How do we impact our fan base?” He also expects Harry’s Nest to become one of the arena’s “Instagrammable moments” that fans seek out.

The community side of the contract

The deal has three community pieces. My Dreams Realized is a program with Atlanta Public Schools that introduces students to careers in construction, design and the skilled trades, with a Future City Exposure Day and field-based learning. The Community Court Tour will run summer basketball and fitness clinics for children ages 6 to 16, paired with Home Depot’s Saturday Kids Workshop DIY builds. Starting in 2027-28, the Hawks will also make an annual donation to The Home Depot Foundation. The amount has not been announced.

“When we build, we build deep. We don’t throw a logo up,” said Amanda Morris, Home Depot’s director of media. Allison Kolber, the company’s vice president of integrated marketing, said the partnership “builds on our presence in live sports.”

The two organizations have worked together before. As far back as 1995, the Hawks and Home Depot upgraded basketball courts and installed fencing in underserved Atlanta neighborhoods, but that work lapsed before Ressler’s purchase. Home Depot’s other Atlanta ties run through football and baseball. Falcons owner Arthur Blank co-founded the retailer, and the Braves stage a Home Depot Tool Race during home games. With this deal, the Hawks become the third Atlanta team in the company’s sports portfolio.

The rest of opening week’s new sponsors

Atlanta was not alone. Several teams announced new partners in the final days of the preseason, when inventory for in-arena signage, giveaways and digital content is set for the season.

Team	Sponsor	Designation	What fans will see
Hawks	The Home Depot	Official Home Improvement Partner	Fan Zone and Harry the Hawk’s Nest entitlement, hammer-stick giveaway at every home game, school and youth programs
Lakers	NordVPN	Partner	In-arena LED signage at home games, social media and digital campaigns
Celtics	Total Mortgage	Official Mortgage Partner	$18 donated for every regular-season Celtics assist to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston
76ers	Wawa	Official Hoagie and Breakfast Sandwich	“Wawa Wally Toss” coupon parachutes at select home games, gameday specials

Lakers and NordVPN. On Monday the Lakers announced a partnership with NordVPN, the cybersecurity and privacy brand of Lithuania’s Nord Security. The company gets in-arena LED signage at Lakers home games along with social media integrations and digital campaigns. “We’re thrilled to welcome NordVPN as a Lakers partner and look forward to sharing their brand and services with Lakers fans,” said Yao Williams, the team’s vice president of global partnerships. NordVPN chief marketing officer Toma Sabaliauskienė tied the deal to the company’s antivirus product. The brand already had a link to the franchise: in September it signed Shaquille O’Neal as an ambassador and brought him to Lithuania.

Celtics and Total Mortgage. Boston named Total Mortgage its Official Mortgage Partner on Monday. The main feature is a charity tie-in called Home Assist. Total Mortgage will donate $18 for every Celtics assist during the 2026-27 regular season, one dollar for each of the franchise’s 18 championships, to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston. The total depends on how Boston plays. As an example, a team averaging 25 assists over 82 games would finish with 2,050 assists, which would produce $36,900. The lender was founded in 1997 by former loan officer John Walsh, has more than 500 employees and is licensed in 46 states and Guam. Chief revenue officer Christopher Affinito called the partnership “a monumental moment for Total Mortgage.”

76ers and Wawa. Philadelphia’s deal was announced on October 16. Wawa becomes the Official Hoagie and Breakfast Sandwich of the 76ers in a multiyear agreement. Its signature activation is the “Wawa Wally Toss,” in which Wawa-branded parachutes carrying coupons and offers drop into the crowd at select home games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Terry Lefton reported that Wawa has more than 400 stores in the greater Philadelphia area out of more than 1,200 overall, and that it already sponsors the Eagles and Phillies. He described the deal as one of many new corporate partners the Sixers have added after an offseason in which they acquired LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. It follows the Bloom Energy jersey patch, which is worth more than $30 million a year.

Why the timing matters

Local sponsorship is one of the largest revenue lines a team controls, and announcements cluster before opening night for practical reasons. Courtside LED rotations, concourse signage, promotional calendars and in-game content packages are built around the 41-game home schedule. A partner that signs before the first home game gets a full season of exposure. A partner that signs in December gets about half.

These deals also show the kinds of companies teams are signing. Home Depot and Wawa are hometown brands looking for a deeper local presence. NordVPN is an international technology brand buying exposure in one of the league’s largest markets. Total Mortgage is a regional lender using a charity tie-in to get its name in front of Celtics fans every night. Three of the four deals include a community or charity commitment. The Hawks and Celtics announcements spend as much space on schools, clinics and housing as on signage.

None of the four teams disclosed financial terms. What the announcements do show is a busy local sponsorship market heading into the 2026-27 season. The Hawks have also now signed a company they had not had a formal deal with in more than a decade, and it is based in their own city.