7v7 Team Sponsorship Contract: What to Put in Writing Before You Ship Gear

Written By Ray Dietrich

I have shipped gear to 7v7 programs before the paper was signed. I have also shipped gear after it was signed. The second way is cheaper. A 7v7 team sponsorship contract is not complicated, but it has to say more than "we'll send jerseys and you'll tag us." This is what I put in writing now, as a brand owner who has paid on these deals for years, and why each line is there.

One thing up front. I am not a lawyer. This is general information from the brand side of the table, not legal advice.

Who you are actually signing with

7v7 is offseason football. Passing only, no pads, played in tournaments and showcases outside the school season. Most of these teams are independent clubs run by a founder or organizer, not by a school. A CBS Miami piece on the South Florida scene called it an "offseason talent showcase" and described team after team built around a founder, not a district. That matters for your contract. A team sponsorship agreement is with the program. Not the players. Not the parents. The club.

So name the counterparty correctly. Ask for the registered entity. Is it an LLC? A nonprofit? A guy with a PayPal and a group chat? If it is the third one, you are not signing with a program. You are handing gear to a person. Get the legal name, the state of registration, and the name and title of the person who is authorized to sign for it. Then ask one more question I learned to ask the hard way: who owns the program's social accounts? If the head coach owns the Instagram login personally and leaves midseason, your "social deliverables" leave with him.

What a 7v7 team sponsorship contract has to spell out

Here is my thesis on every athlete or team deal I do. The team is a distribution channel. Nothing starts until a customer hands over an email or a card. So the deliverables list is the whole point, and it goes in writing, item by item.

  • Uniform and gear placement. Which items carry the logo. Where the logo goes. Sleeve, chest, back yoke, socks, wristbands. "Logo on the uniform" is not a term. "Left sleeve, minimum three inches, on the game jersey and the warm-up shirt" is a term.

  • Social posts. A number, not a promise. Posts per month, tag the brand account, use the agreed hashtag, and the program keeps the posts up through the term. Reels and stories count differently. Say which.

  • Tournament and event presence. Banner at the tent. Booth space if you want it. A shout-out at the team meeting or awards. Put the tournament names or a minimum count in the agreement.

  • Photo and video access. The right for your people to shoot at events the program controls, and a copy of what the program's own photographer shoots.

  • The capture piece. This is the one most sponsors skip and the one I care about most. A QR code on the tent banner. A discount code printed on the parent packet. A sign-up sheet at the booth. Something that lets a parent hand me an email or an order. If the deal gives me nothing measurable, it is a donation with a logo on it. That can be fine. But call it what it is.

Everything above is the same logic I use for individual athletes. I wrote that up in what a real athlete agreement has to include. Team deals just have more moving parts and more people who can say "nobody told me."

Gear terms, because gear is where the money leaks

Gear is the expensive part of a 7v7 sponsorship. It is also where most of the arguments start. Write these down:

  • What ships. Item list and quantities. Not "a uniform package."

  • When it ships. A date, tied to a date the program owes you first.

  • Size run deadline. The program sends sizes by a set date. If sizes are late, ship dates move. This one clause has saved me more headaches than any other.

  • Replacements. What you replace, what you don't, and who pays for a second run when a player joins in week four.

  • Termination. Gear already shipped stays with the players. Nobody is collecting jerseys from teenagers. But anything not yet shipped stays with you if the deal ends early.

  • No resale. Sponsored product does not get sold, raffled, or "fundraised" without your written okay.

Money tied to milestones, not a check up front

If there is cash in the deal, I do not send a lump sum on signing. Never again. The money follows the program's deliverables. A piece when the roster and size run come in. A piece when uniforms are delivered and the first tagged post is up. A piece after the first tournament with the banner in the photos. The program still gets paid. It just gets paid for things that happened.

Exclusivity that does not get a kid in trouble

I ask for category exclusivity and only category exclusivity. My product category, nobody else's. The program can have a hydration sponsor, a trainer, a photographer, a pizza place. It cannot bring on another brand in my lane while my paper is active, and I want that stated plainly so the team's other sponsors know the boundary too.

Then the carve-out. These kids play for high schools, other leagues, camps. What they wear there is not my business and the contract says so. Exclusivity covers the program's activities. Nothing more.

Usage rights on team content

The program licenses me its team name, its logo, and the content it produces during the term. I can run it in ads, email, and on the site. And there is a runoff window after the deal ends. Ninety days is what I usually ask for. Without a runoff, the day the season ends I am pulling ads that were working. I covered the reasoning in usage rights after the deal ends. Same rules apply to a team.

The media release from each parent is a separate document

This is the part that surprises people. A team sponsorship agreement is not an NIL agreement. The program can license me its logo. The program cannot license me a fifteen-year-old's face. That right belongs to the athlete, and for a minor, to the parent or guardian who signs for him. The general principle, as Cornell's Legal Information Institute puts it, is that state law may allow minors to reject promises made in a contract, which is why it is called voidable. So I want an adult's signature, one per player, on a one-page release.

Skip that step and here is where you land: a season of great photos, and you cannot legally use a single player's face in an ad. I wrote about why the adult signature matters in the parent signature. For a team deal, I make the release a condition of the gear. No release, no jersey for that player. Program directors understand that once you explain it.

Term, renewal and what is owed

One season. That is the term. Then a renewal review, on the calendar, where both sides look at what got delivered and whether the QR code did anything. Termination for cause with a short cure period. And a clean sentence about what is owed on exit: gear already shipped stays, unpaid milestones that were hit get paid, milestones that were not hit do not.

Keep your paper away from the school

Nothing in my team deal touches a high school. No school name, no school logo, no school uniform in the content. The state associations that allow high school NIL mostly draw exactly that line. Opendorse's tracker, updated April 26, 2026, lists five states that prohibit high school NIL outright and Montana as under review, and among the states that permit it, it notes most require deals to be unaffiliated with the athlete's school and team, with several banning school logos and uniforms in the content. Your 7v7 sponsorship should never be the reason a kid has an eligibility conversation with his athletic director. Club logo, club jersey, club events. That is the whole world of the deal.

What a 7v7 program director should ask a sponsor

Directors read this site too. Fair is fair. Ask us:

  • What exactly ships, and by what date?

  • What happens to the money if you cancel midseason?

  • Who owns the photos your people take of our kids?

  • How long can you use our logo after the season ends?

  • Is any of this tied to a school, and could it affect eligibility?

  • Can we see the parent release before we hand it out?

A sponsor who cannot answer those in writing is not ready to sponsor a team. My NIL Contract Template Pack includes a 7v7 Team Sponsorship Agreement built around every section above, plus the one-page parent media release that goes with it.

FAQ

Is a 7v7 team sponsorship contract the same as an NIL deal?
No. The sponsorship is with the program and covers the club's logo, gear, and events. NIL rights belong to each athlete. You need a separate parent-signed release for each player whose face you plan to use.

Who signs a youth team sponsorship agreement?
The person authorized to sign for the registered entity that runs the program. Confirm the entity exists and confirm the signer's authority before gear ships.

Should the sponsor pay up front?
I do not. Tie payments to milestones: roster and sizes in, uniforms delivered, first tournament played.

Can a sponsor stop players from wearing other brands at school?
Not in my deals. Exclusivity is limited to my product category and to the program's own activities. What players wear for their school or another league is outside the agreement.

What if the program cancels the season?
Write it in. Gear already delivered stays with the players. Unshipped gear stays with the sponsor. Milestone payments not yet earned are not owed.

These are commercial templates and general information, not legal advice. Buying or reading them does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Ardent Executive Consulting is not a law firm. NIL rules differ by state, athletic association and institution, and they change often; several states restrict or prohibit high school NIL entirely. Have a licensed attorney in your state review any agreement before you use it.

Get the pack: NIL Contract Template Pack — 7 editable .docx agreements, $39, including the 7v7 Team Sponsorship Agreement and parent media release.

Sources

Ray Dietrich
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High School NIL Contract: Why the Parent Signature Is the Whole Deal