Corporate Sponsorship

AT&T Park in San Francisco. Coors Field in Denver. PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Yes, they’re all baseball stadiums. But they’re all sports venues sponsored by corporations.

Corporate sponsorship is an incredibly annoying marketing practice used to generating brand awareness and goodwill among potential and existing customers. Of course, it’s not just stadiums...even though there are corporate names covering sports facilities ranging from minor league baseball to indoor soccer locations.

The worst month of this nonsense is December, when corporations throw money at really bad college football bowl games. Wanna watch the Autonation Cure Bowl or the Raycom Media Camelia Bowl? How about the Dollar General Bowl and the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl? Or the worst sporting event name ever: “The College Football Playoff at the Rose Bowl Game Presented By Northwestern Mutual.”

You’re gonna get your chance.

You might not know who these companies are, and you might not even know what they do. And, at first, you might not even notice the sheer amount of name saturation that takes place on everything from the sponsorship of video replays to the white towels with logos on them handed out to all fans.

But your brain does.

Corporate sponsors also put their names on conference centers, charity events, and more. It’s part of a more strategic effort to bolster image in specific communities depending on their operations and range. In reality, it’s part of a broader effort to make you buy things you or your company may not want or need. Meanwhile, some advertising buyer is eating steak and drinking $2,000 wine because they were able to get companies to put their name all over their event.