Royals Uniforms Will Get A New Patch in 2024

The Kansas City Royals unveiled a new jersey patch the team will be wearing this season and beyond. Don't get too excited though, it's not anything that has to do with The Royals, their logo, or baseball. It has a lot to do with gas station hot dogs and literacy.

The Royals announced this morning that QuickTrip is now the official jersey partner of the Royals. What this means is the Royals will sport the QuickTrip logo on all uniform jersey sleeves throughout Spring Training and the regular season, and for years to come through this multi-year partnership.

I'm not a big fan of the sponsor logos on baseball jerseys. At this point, going to a Major League Baseball game is like sitting through the trailers before a movie. There are ads on the outfield wall. Ads on the Crown Vision scoreboard. Ads blaring through the PA system. If it can be sponsored and sold, they'll sell it and sponsor it.

So my thought is, is there anything that we can just leave alone, like the uniform? I guess not when the ultimate goal isn't just a championship, but a championship, a new stadium with an entertainment district, and yeah, profits.

One of my gripes with the QuickTrip logo patch is that QT's logo and colors are red and white, while the Royals colors are blue and white. So we'll put this patch with a red field behind the QT logo on every team member's shoulder. Might it be a little less intrusive if the field behind the QT logo was blue? Yes, but then again, people might not make the association that it's QuickTrip, and let's face it they're paying big money for the privilege.

While I'd rather see the Royals NOT have a sponsor patch on their jersey, at least they took a novel approach to the sponsorship. They wanted it to be something more than a transactional sponsorship. The multi-year partnership between QuickTrip and the Royals is built around investing in the community, especially literacy needs in the Kansas City area.

According to Anne Roger's story on the Royals website, the Royals and QuickTrip aligned on the literacy needs of the Kansas City area because only 21% of third graders in Kansas City public schools are reading on grade level. That metric is an important indicator because students who can't read proficiently by the third grade are four times less likely to graduate high school. Additionally, lower literacy rates are tied to higher risks of violence, drug use, and other poor health incomes.

Additionally, a key pillar of The Kansas City Royals Foundation's mission is literacy, while QuickTrip has prioritized helping at-risk youth and early childhood education.

The partnership includes a program focused on improving literacy rates across Kansas City, as well as a significant commitment to Kansas City Public Schools. Other initiatives will include a classroom program, the establishment of mobile libraries, in-game and in-broadcast literary-related activations, and more.

QuickTrip will also receive some general marketing support in Kauffman Stadium as well.

I'm still not a huge fan of the patch, however, I'll give the Royals and QuickTrip a thumbs up for trying to make it more than a cash transaction in exchange for a sponsor logo on the uniform.

Also one last pro tip: skip the overpriced hotdogs at the stadium, stop into QT, and get yourself a couple of dogs on the way to the game. They know how to cook a gas station hot dog to perfection!