The Numbers
Little Caesars is entering its fifth season as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL with a materially larger commercial footprint than last year: 21 local team partnerships — up from 9 returning deals — three new in-stadium concession locations, and a national athlete roster featuring Justin Jefferson, Jared Goff and George Kittle. The chain, the third-largest pizza brand globally with locations across all 50 U.S. states and 30 countries, is using the NFL calendar as its primary demand-generation vehicle heading into the back half of 2026.
The season opens with a value-anchored promotional push: from August 17 through September 13, customers who purchase two large 1-topping pizzas together online using promo code PIZZAPIZZA pay $4.99 per pizza. The offer is exclusive to the Little Caesars app and website, a deliberate channel choice that pushes first-party digital ordering and strengthens the brand's direct customer relationship ahead of a busy fall. The company's loyalty and rewards program, Pizza!Pizza! Pregame, relaunches within the app on September 9 — NFL opening weekend — with challenges available on Thursday, Sunday and Monday game days through February 14, 2027.
Why It Matters
The local team partnership expansion is the most commercially significant element of the announcement. The 10 new deals — covering the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks — give Little Caesars co-branded marketing rights, digital promotions and in-game activation access across new home markets. Combined with nine returning partners (Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans), the chain now holds NFL marketing relationships in 21 of the league's 32 markets — a significant densification of local sports media reach for a value-positioned QSR brand.
In-stadium concession expansion at Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars venues adds a high-visibility physical retail channel that functions as both revenue and brand advertising. For quick-service restaurant operators competing on value, live-venue presence increasingly serves as a proof point that the brand belongs alongside premium stadium food programs.
What's Next
Jefferson leads the first national television creative, activating the Pizza!Pizza! promotion during the pre-season period. Goff and Kittle are scheduled for additional national placements across the full season. Greg Hamilton, Chief Marketing Officer at Little Caesars, framed the campaign as a convergence of value messaging and scale: "As we enter our fifth year with the NFL, we are pairing the iconic Pizza!Pizza! value fans know with an incredible lineup of talent and our largest local team presence yet."
The chain will also deploy its Love Kitchen — a mobile unit used for community feeding events — in Seattle on September 8 in partnership with the NFL and the Seattle Seahawks, targeting Byrd Barr Place. Community activations of this kind carry increasing weight in franchise development markets, where local goodwill is a measurable asset for prospective franchisees evaluating brand strength. Little Caesars, which continues to actively recruit franchise candidates globally, benefits from associating its expansion markets with both team branding and community presence ahead of new location openings.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
