Small-Scale Sports Event Sponsorship

Introduction

Small events and especially small sport events depend on their success to attract sponsors. According to the relevant event management literature, sponsorship is an asset management component that contributes to the improvement of the financial index ROI (Return Of Investment) of an Event and Event Management business. More specifically, sponsorships are a revenue item for an event and as such supports an event's budget, covering a significant portion of the event's necessary expenses (Schnitzer, 2014; Cafferata, 2004). The main reasons for sponsoring sporting events by interested investors are the following: a) television performance and coverage, b) brand promotion and c) consumer attraction through event watching (Abratt, Clayton & Pitt, 1987). According to the International Events Group (IEG), in 2017, sponsored mainly sporting events, which was the main emerging promotional activity worldwide, with particular emphasis on the use of Social Media i.e., using mostly Facebook and Twitter as communication tools for promoting and activating sponsorships. Sports events compared to other type of events e.g. festivals, exhibitions, entertainment, art etc., attract the largest share of investor sponsors, accounting for 70% of the total annual budgets available for sponsorships internationally (IEG LLC, 2017, p.12, 29).

There are various definitions given to the term sponsorship. One of the dominant definitions is that of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). According to the ICC and the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), “sponsorship” is defined as any commercial agreement through which a sponsor seeks the mutual benefit of the sponsor and the other parties to the sponsorship, and provides contractual funding or other support to establish a link between the sponsor's image, trademarks or products, and a granted ownership, for rights to promote this relationship and / or for the grant of certain agreed direct or indirect benefits (ICC, 2018, p.26). Another useful definition is the following one of McCarville and Copeland (1994, p.103), based on these authors; sponsorship involves an exchange of resources with an independent partner in hope of gaining a corresponding return from the sponsor. The notion of mutual return distinguishes sponsorship from other forms of corporate support like philanthropy, charity and patronage, which do not involve the advancement of commercial objectives. Sponsorship is undertaken so that both partners can benefit. This definition gives a good description of the differences between other related actions like patronage, charity and philanthropy. In this chapter we use also the term “sponsor” to describe that party that provides funds to a sporting event organizer in exchange for the right to affiliate with the sporting organization or to own certain promotional activities and actions relating to the event of the sporting event (Sport New Zealand, 2012). Sponsors are usually looking for opportunities to promote their brands, products and services through this collaboration with the event organizer. They can be paying or an in-kind sponsors. The last promotes their product and services without paying.

Improper sponsorship management causes problems with the performance and financial viability of an sport event, especially when it is considered as small-scaled event and is often affected by the limited resources available to private equity owners. Small-scaled sport events, because of the visitors, participants and public they attract e.g., local populations of spectators, participants, and clients, often they don’t have the bargaining power of large-scale events to attract large multinational sponsors for their actions. But this is not a problem, as small-scaled sport event organizers often overcome this weakness by seeking support and partnerships with sponsors of the domestic, regional, and local investor market. This sponsoring and partnership relations can be developed and vice versa, i.a., from the local sponsor to the organizer. Thus, this chapter notes those necessary administrative considerations and the actions needed to plan the sponsorhip business activities of the small-scaled sports events in order to make the cooperation of the two basic parts i.e., sponsors and event organisors, most effective.