The Kansas City Royals and Quick Trip have announced a new multi-year partnership to put a Quick Trip logo patch on Royals players’ jerseys. The Royals will wear the new Quick Trip logo on all players’ jerseys for all the Spring Training and regular season games in 2024. 

The MLB started to allow sponsor patches on jerseys in 2023, and this will be the first year the Royals have a sponsor patch on their jerseys. This partnership focuses on building in the community and improving the literacy needs in Kansas City and surrounding areas.

Early childhood education and literacy have been a longstanding mission of both the Kansas City Royals and QuickTrip. According to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the partnership will also include the launch of “Hit the Books,” a program aiming to improve literacy rates for students in the Kansas City community. 

The bright red logo definitely clashed with the Royals colors, and some fans complained about it, but most were quickly behind the mission behind the partnership and the potential impact it could have for youth in the community. 

It’s an exciting partnership with a good focus. The National Assessment of Educational Progress publishes the Nation’s Report Card. According to the 2019 results, they found that less than 40% of students in public and non-public schools were reading at or above grade level. And that less than 30% of students met that threshold in large city public schools. The report card also showed that literacy rates decrease along demographic lines, with there being a big gap between higher and lower-income youth as well as among White students and Black and Hispanic students. 

Regardless of fans’ thoughts about how the logo looks on the jersey, the Royals obviously cared more about a partnership that could have more meaning behind it than just an advertisement on the jersey. You’ll be able to spot the logo a mile away on the jersey, but hopefully, some positive outcomes will come for youth in the Kansas City community shortly due to this partnership.