Athletic sponsors sponsor sports teams or sponsor individuals who engage in athletic competitions. These athletes require sponsorship for training and equipment, food, housing and other essential needs while endeavoring to achieve athletic excellence. Some athletes are individuals competing in different sporting events and some athletes are those who participate in a team effort such as basketball, football, soccer, and the Olympic teams to name a few.
Some of the benefits athletes get from sponsorship also include their name becoming a household word not just for their athletic prowess. An athlete who has their face on the cover of a cereal box, snack food, sporting goods packaging, shirt, athletic shoe or piece of sporting equipment and the royalties paid for the use of their face or image are also a boost to sponsorship. Corporate sponsors may benefit from sponsoring certain athletes and teams because it offers exposure to their product. For the same reasons athletes benefit, so do sponsors. For example, if a well loved athlete appears on a cereal box, all those who love the athlete would be more likely to eat the cereal, or a popular shoe brand that an athlete wears may be worn by those who admire the athletic skill of that athlete, or who enjoy the sport and wish to excel at it.
There are other ways to benefit from corporate or even small business sponsorships. Local businesses may sponsor league teams in their town, or college teams, or private leagues. Those sponsors could benefit from numerous representation techniques offered by the athletic organization or by the competing individual.
For example, a competing team may wear the logo or name of a particular sponsor on their team's shirt, have the sponsor's name on the back of tickets sold for an event, as well as representation on calendars, sports programs, banners hung at the games near the scoreboard or throughout the facility where the sport is played on the walls.
There are special rates of athletic sponsorship that can be set up in the sponsorship contract. Sponsorship packages outline in detail what potential sponsors would get if the corporation contributes a particular amount of money. For example, if a sponsor would contribute $5,000.00 to an athletic endeavor, they may receive as a benefit a banner that is field or court side, exposure in the team program at the game and the corporate name on the team shirt.