Sponsorship Management For Sports Publishers

Selling sponsorships is one job. delivering them is another.

At On First Agency, we run sponsorship as an operating function for independent sports media publishers.
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On the front end that means pricing your inventory and going out and selling it. On the back end it means making sure what's already sold actually runs, gets reported, and comes up for renewal with a record behind it. Most independent publications are decent at one of those and short-staffed on the other — not from carelessness, but because both jobs land on people hired to cover a sport.

Which half is your publication?
I ALREADY SELL/HAVE SPONSORS
I NEED HELP SELLING SPONSORSHIP

You sold it. Now it has to run.

The pattern is the same for almost every independent sports publication.

A sponsor buys a package — presenting on the podcast, newsletter placements, a site takeover during the postseason, and social media across the entire year.

Then the season starts. Editorial goes heads-down on coverage. Six weeks later though, that sponsor has only been read into a handful of the podcasts and hasn't appeared in the newsletter since in four weeks. You find out at renewal, arguing from memory against a sponsor arguing from their own tracking.

You have a publication to run. You don't have to deal with this, On First Agency can.
Reach Out

How On First Agency Helps Sports Publishers Manage Sponsorships

1. Review & Reconciliation

Find out exactly where you stand. On First Agency will come in a review the status of your current sposnorships: every contracted deliverable mapped against what actually ran, sponsor by sponsor, channel by channel. With this step, you'll have a live "gap table" instead of your personal recollection.

2. Delivery Management

It all gets taken care of. Placements scheduled against the publishing calendar before the season starts rather than chased during it. Creative collected, assets built or sourced, and obligations tracked to close.

3. Communication

Communication breakdowns are where sponsor partnerships most often fail. On First Agency handles all of the communication with your sponsors, internal teams, and external stakeholders.

4. Sponsor-Facing Reporting

Campaign recaps and stats that go out on a schedule instead of when a sponsor asks. This way, everything done throughout the partnership is transparent and everyone involved is looped in to what's going on.

5. Renewal Preparation

Renewal calls won't start from zero. Ninety days out, every account will have a documented delivery record with all available analytics. Plus, we can help you identify & value new assets to pitch during the sponsorship renewal process!

Interested in getting sponsorship management off your plate?
Reach out to me, Chris Gennaro, the owner of On First Agency, directly: chris@onfirstagency.com

You have the audience.
You have the inventory.
Now What?

Your publication works. People are reading, and the impression numbers are really adding up. But you only have 1 or 2 sponsors when you really could support 5 or 6.

Not because there's no demand — because selling is also a full-time job, and it belongs to nobody on an editorial masthead. What usually exists is a rate sheet somebody built once, priced off a number they found somewhere, and now your hoping sponsors find it and reach out to you. But what usually doesn't exist is a list of everything sellable across your surfaces, priced against what your own audience actually delivers, and someone to put that in front of viable sponsors.
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Dashboard mockup

How On First Agency Helps Sports Publishers Sell Sponsorships

1. Valuation

We find all possible sellable placement across your website, newsletter, podcast, social, and video. Then we inventory, catalog, and price so you/we have a detailed rate card ready to showcase to potential sponsors.

2. Packaging

Once we have a priced inventory list, we assemble it all into packages that a sponosr can buy. These are yearly franchises (i.e. Top 25's, weekly digests, etc.), season tentpoles (i.e. All-American teams, transfer rankings, etc.), and multi-channel bundles. Packages with meaning sell better than one-off slots with no meaning behind them.

4. Sourcing + Closing

We put together a prospect list tailored to your publication: a perfect mix of sport-speific brands and non-endemic brands. Then, we "pound the pavement" on your behalf, leveraging relationships to get like-minded sponsorship partners in your ecosystem.

4. Managing

Campaign recaps and stats that go out on a schedule instead of when a sponsor asks. This way, everything done throughout the partnership is transparent and everyone involved is looped in to what's going on.

Interested in getting sponsorship management off your plate?
Reach out to me, Chris Gennaro, the owner of On First Agency, directly: chris@onfirstagency.com
I check my email daily and personally handle all the responses.
A Quick Case Study

Sponsorship Management for D1Baseball.com

D1Baseball is the leader in Division I college baseball media coverage. In 2026, they had over 15 sponsors and partners executing deliverables across their website, email, podcasts, social media, and OOH.
BEFORE ON FIRST AGENCY
4-5
Sponsors Per Year
<50%
YoY Sponsor Retainment Rate
<250
Annual Contracted Deliverables Managed
AFTER ON FIRST AGENCY
15+
Sponsors Per Year
87%
YoY Sponsor Retainment Rate
>1,500
Annual Contracted Deliverables Managed
Interested in getting sponsorship management off your plate?
Reach out to me, Chris Gennaro, the owner of On First Agency, directly: chris@onfirstagency.com
I check my email daily and personally handle all the responses.
What else can On First do for you?
OTHER SERVICES
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Marketing
Doing your social media & email (way better) so you don't have to.
Content
Creation
Making your brand standout with Graphic Design, Video, and Written Content.
Strategy Consulting
Advising on the behind-the-scenes strategy and processes that drive hyper-growth.
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
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