Is Everything For Sale?

Remember when venues were named without looking for a check? Beehive Field in New Britain! Shea Stadium in New York! The Oakdale Music Theater!

They are now remnants from a simpler time.

Today every name has a price. I can’t help thinking about this as I watch the Discover BCS National Championship from Sun Life Stadium near Miami. Just in case you forget there are a few Discover logos on the playing field.

DirecTV sponsored an overhead camera shot, Nissan the sight of the players entering the field and Taco Bell had something to do with a replay.

Really, Taco Bell? You want to be even more associated with replays?

AT&T sponsors the “Player of the Year.” If he leaves school before graduation does he have to pay an early termination fee?

It’s not just this game. I was listening to the radio halftime show from last night’s NFC playoff game. It came from the “Tax Slayer Dot Com” studio.

Uh huh. I’m sure there’s a plaque on the wall.

I know it costs money to produce these spectacles, but where will it end? College sports used to be a symbol of purity. These were student athletes playing for the glory of their alma mater.

Right.

7 thoughts on “Is Everything For Sale?”

  1. The Same is true of the BOWL games and other major sporting events. The various Golf turnies, tennis, Football and such are now prefaced by some big name company, which may change from year to year. Even Bull riding is effected… top Bulls are purchased by companys and suddenly the names that are famous for years get changed and include this or that company.

  2. I do wonder some times just how much our taxes would go down if they sold naming rights to schools and other public buildings – and plastered company logos all over town trucks till they looked like NASCAR stock cars….

  3. None of this stuff bothers me one bit. We have professorial chairs named after companies at my school. Buildings, too. The Ronald McDonald School of Law has a ring to it.

  4. It’s gotten to the point, I no longer pay attention to the naming of a facility, unless its to ask whatever happened to a place that changed its name. They do it for advertising but just because a place is now Called Lowes or Home Depot Center or something like that Doesn’t mean I will buy that product. And Oakdale will always be Oakdale in my book no matter what it is named this week. Maybe this will stop if they ever rename Yankee field

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