Key Success Factors for Establishing Sponsorship Partnerships in Czech Elite Athletics

Sport sponsorship has shifted from the passive purchase of advertising space towards long-term relationship building and value co-creation. In individual sports, where the athlete operates as a standalone human brand without the institutional protection of a club, the mechanisms of this market remain academically unmapped. This thesis aims to identify and describe the key success factors for establishing sponsorship partnerships in Czech elite athletics from the integrated perspective of three groups of actors. The thesis employs a two-layer qualitative design. In the first layer, 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews with elite athletes, representatives of sponsoring companies and sport managers were analysed through open and axial coding, yielding 21 factors. In the second layer, the same respondents weighted 13 of these factors on a seven point Likert scale. The findings show that athletic performance is a necessary entry ticket but not a sufficient condition for commercial success. Ethical integrity and credible use of the sponsored product act as uncompromising entry filters without which a partnership does not arise, while a genuine personal story provides the athlete's actual competitive advantage. The most striking finding concerns the perceived role of sport managers: while athletes and managers regard professional representation as essential, companies, particularly smaller and local ones, perceive agents as a barrier and prefer a direct, informal relationship with the athlete. The thesis extends knowledge of sponsorship in individual sports within a small national market and formulates specific managerial recommendations for athletes, companies and intermediaries.