South Africa, Sept. 1 -- They'll remember the winning try, the last-minute goal, the impossible catch, the athlete and the roar of the crowd.

Ask them who negotiated the sponsorship that made that moment possible, who built the fan experience, who protected the partnership, who managed the rights, or who somehow kept everything on track behind the scenes...

You'll probably get a blank stare.

And that's perfectly okay. The people behind the scenes have never been chasing the applause. They've simply been making sure everyone else gets to enjoy it.

Having spent the past decade in the sponsorship industry, one thing has become increasingly clear to me. While athletes remain the heartbeat of sport, the business behind sport has quietly be...