"Sponsor The Conversation, Not Just The Game"

At this year's Lions Sport forum, WNBA chief growth officer Colie Edison put a line on the record that's blunter than most rights-holders say publicly: brand partners have to stop treating activation as a one-off campaign and start treating it as a long-term stake in the athletes themselves. Her point was that a single-campaign mindset gets a single-campaign ROI, but treating a partnership as multi-year and athlete-first is what actually moves the number.

Why it matters: The same logic that's driving WNBA and Athlos deal structures is starting to show up in golf and tennis sponsorship too - brands paying for association are getting squeezed out by brands paying for participation (content rights, athlete equity, creator tie-ins). If your sponsorship model still reads as "logo + hospitality + a few social posts," you're pricing yourself against a shrinking category.

Actionable takeaway: Before your next sponsorship renewal conversation, audit whether the deal gives the brand anything beyond visibility - content rights, athlete access, or a story angle that didn't exist before the partnership. If the answer is "no, just the logo," that's the gap to fix first, not the one to paper over with a bigger activation budget.

Credit: SportsPro