To negotiate a fair contract between a sponsor and athlete, one should always seek the help of professionals. Although agreements are not always done the same way, there are five questions that should always be considered before signing a sponsorship-contract.

These five points can not be missing in a contract:

  1. The Object

What is going to be sponsored by the sponsor? Is it only going to be a single project (i.e a tournament) or an extended period of time? The exact object of the sponsorship should always be defined beforehand to get any possible misunderstandings out of the way right off the bat. The closer the object is defined, the better.

2.  Funding-Output of the sponsor

The sponsor is not always just providing financial support for the sponsoree. Non-Cash benefits (i.e providing new shirts, new equipment, new gear) are also an interesting option for both sides. What exactly those financial/non-financial benefits are have to determined before the contract is signed. If the sponsorship is solely based on financial support, it has to be determined how high the support is going to be and how often/when the money is going to be transferred. The same goes with providing new jerseys, equipment and gear.

3. The athlete’s return service

Depending on the contract, each and every contract comes with responsibilities for the athlete. They have a wide range from easy to relatively complex ones. To clear the dust, all the responsibilities should be noted in the contract. If the sponsorship should be documented with pictures or videos, the laws of copyrights always have to be in the back of the mind.

4. Relations to other sponsors

If the sponsor wants to be the exclusive sponsor of the athlete, a special agreement has to be reached for that. If that does not happen, the athlete is free to have other companies to sponsor him as well.

5. Duration and options for terminating the contract

If any of the two sides wants to add a specific length of the contract, they can do so.  Anyhow, it should always be stated how long the cancellation period for each side is.

It is possible for a sponsoring contract to have more points than the five above. It is always helpful to use a model contract like the one found on www.sponsoo.de.  The team would be more than happy to assist with filling out the contract.