The San Francisco Giants won’t be wearing jerseys with a Cruise patch after all.
Starting in the 2024 season, the team will replace the controversial self-driving car company’s logo with a Chevrolet symbol on its uniform sleeves, Cruise and Giants officials told The Examiner on Thursday.
The Giants previously told The Examiner in December that its partnership with Cruise had not changed, signaling that the patch would remain on the jerseys this season.
The San Francisco Business Times on Thursday first reported the news of Chevrolet replacing Cruise.
General Motors owns both Cruise and Chevrolet. The new advertisement patch, which the Business Times obtained an image of, highlights the Chevrolet Bolt, the company’s electric vehicle that is also used in Cruise’s fleet of robotaxis.
"Cruise is transitioning our Giants marketing partnership, including rights as the official uniform patch partner, to Chevrolet — keeping it in the GM family," Cruise spokesperson Sara Autio said in a statement.
Both Cruise and the Giants said the two are committed to installing “hundreds” of electric-vehicle chargers near Oracle Park.
“Cruise continues to be our valued partner,” a Giants spokesperson told The Examiner.
The sponsor switch is the latest twist in the Giants’ jersey-patch saga, which has rankled fans who prefer the team’s classic, longtime uniforms not be altered.
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The Giants in August began sporting a specially designed Giants-themed Cruise patch on uniform sleeves as part of the first jersey sponsorship deal in team history.
But in the months since the patch was sewn onto the Giants’ cream-colored threads, Cruise has spiraled into crisis. The company’s problems came to a head in October when one of its vehicles struck and dragged a pedestrian 20 feet in downtown San Francisco. The victim, a woman who has not been identified, was hospitalized with serious injuries but has since been released, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital told the Examiner. KNTV reported she was discharged last month.
The incident prompted multiple state agencies to revoke the company’s permits to operate its self-driving technology in the state. Eventually, Cruise pulled its entire fleet of robotaxis off the roads nationwide.
The crash also led to state and federal investigations. The California Public Utilities Commission is amid an ongoing dispute against the company, alleging that Cruise covered up key evidence during the regulators’ probe into the October crash.
Shortly after the collision, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt and nearly a dozen other executives resigned and the company laid off a quarter of its staff.
It's unclear why and when the team’s partnership with Cruise changed. New manager Bob Melvin wore a jersey featuring the Cruise sponsorship when he was introduced to the media in October, about three weeks after one of Cruise’s cars struck and dragged the woman.
Outfielder Jung Ho-Lee, however, wore a jersey without the Cruise sponsorship at his introductory press conference in December. Soon after Lee’s press conference, the Giants told The Examiner their “partnership with Cruise has not changed.”
GM previously said they planned to pull “hundreds of millions” dollars in funding for Cruise in 2024.
The Giants’ chief revenue officer, Jason Pearl, told the Business Times that the team is unsure what the patch will look like in 2025, the final year of the partnership. But he said the team is open to Cruise returning as a jersey sponsor.
