Chase Increases Involvement in Tampa with Lightning & Storm Sponsorship

Chase Bank has signed on with the Tampa Bay Times Forum in a multi-year partnership deal with the arena, Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Storm as official bank, credit card, financial services partner, ATM provider and community partner.

The partnership will combine the power of Chase’s community volunteers and the Tampa Bay Lightning working jointly to upgrade hockey rinks and provide hundreds of sets of hockey equipment for youth in communities around the Greater Tampa Bay area. Chase and the Lightning also will partner to award homes to local military vets as part of the Chase Home Award program and to support the University of South Florida’s MBA in Sports and Entertainment Management program.

To celebrate the new Community Partnership, Chase and the Lightning will light up the arena with Chase blue in a special in-game ceremony on March 14, when the Lightning hosts the New York Islanders. The following day, volunteers from Chase will join the Lightning’s Feeding Children Everywhere initiative on March 15th, hand-packing 100,000 healthy meals that will be distributed to children across Tampa Bay.

“We are fans of Tampa Bay and are very proud to be partnering with one of our city’s most important landmarks in bringing the attributes of the Chase brand to the arena. More importantly, we are teaming up with an organization that shares our commitment to building strong communities and together we will be making a difference among young sport fans in Tampa,” said Mel Martinez, chairman for JPMorgan Chase in Florida.

Through the partnership, Chase also will bring benefits to the bank’s customers, hockey fans and event goers including discounts on team merchandise, unique in-arena experiences through the Chase Ultimate Rewards platform, and player meet-and-greets at local branches. Chase also will receive prominent exposure at the venue through entitlement of the all-inclusive Chase Club, the Times Forum’s most exclusive seating area, along with in-ice and dasherboard signage.

“We appreciate the leadership at JPMorgan Chase of Florida for sharing our community-first vision and investing with us to enrich lives in the Tampa Bay area,” said Jeff Vinik, Chairman, of Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment, LLC, which controls the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Tampa Bay Storm and the Tampa Bay Times Forum. “We believe the partnership will benefit not only both organizations, but most importantly we believe this will be good for the people of our community.”

Chase has been aggressively growing its footprint in Greater Tampa Bay, where it serves customers through 59 branches and 284 ATMs. The bank has expanded its presence to include markets like South Tampa, St. Petersburg and others, to serve the local market. In addition, JPMorgan Chase is an important employer in the community, with a workforce representing more than 5,500 people.