Sports Endorsement Contract
Negotiating a sports endorsement Contract is a unique and challenging endeavor for agents, legal counsel, and athletes. The athlete (client) needs to know that their team of lawyers, agents, and managers are providing a solid foundation for agreement negotiation. Legal counsel and agents offer the client expertise, understanding, and guidance when it comes to negotiation. Their expertise creates protection of a client’s best interests and helps foresee problems down the road.
Public Appearance Clause
Public appearances are integral and mandatory for many endorsement Contracts. One must make sure that all of an athlete’s needs are met when it comes to public appearances and performance. Public appearances require a lot of effort such as travel and time, so it’s important for contracts to help limit and define public appearances in order to serve the athlete.
-Compensation for public appearances should be negotiated before any participation and should be incurred as a direct result of the appearance.
-The expectation of participation must be negotiated. Usually an athlete limit their number of public appearances to 2-6.
-It is advisable to limit the length of public appearances. It is not ideal for an athlete to spend hours giving out autographs and handshakes. On average, three hours is the maximum amount of time an athlete would give to a public appearance.
Exclusivity
Exclusivity is a paramount aspect to contract and endorsement negotiation. Because endorsements use an athlete’s likeness, image, and name in order to promote or market something, specific clauses must be in place to protect the athlete’s exclusivity.
Compensation
Compensation clause helps deal with money and how an athlete will be compensated
-Base compensation: What an athlete will receive monetary wise for endorsing a company. This contract is unique to each athlete. Base compensation is usually product based and compensation is determined, predicted, and negotiated based on a particular product and its popularity.
-Bonuses: Bonuses happen a lot for athletes because of their time spent on the field / on television. If an athlete spends more time on the field, they are promoting a product more.
Salient Caveat
Each contract that is created and negotiated is unique given the circumstances and parties negotiation. Good deals require a level of analysis and craftsmanship, thus we recommend hiring a team of legal counsel and agents to help arrange endorsement Contracts.
