From the Sidelines

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 28, 1999

MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / April 28, 1999

While we were redoing the sports section, I got to thinking about getting a sponsor for this column.

And why not? Just about everything in sports these days is sponsored by one thing or another. It’s getting to remind me of the Tiny Toons cartoon Iused to watch while at LSU (yes, college students watch cartoons too).

Buster Bunny is playing tennis and when his opponent mentions a product, there’s Buster holding up a sign “Money Plug.”There are sponsors for everything from the halftime show at the Super Bowl to the ticker that gives scores and news on the sports channels.

There’s even been recent talk about utilizing advertising space on the uniforms of Major League Baseball players. Great. That’s just what weneed, a McDonald’s logo on Mark McGwire. We already have those annoyingrevolving signs behind home plate and sponsors for the starting lineup.

And then there are the corporate names for ball parks. There’s EdisonInternational Field in Anaheim (sounds like an airport), Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg (isn’t that an orange grove?) and Cinergy Field in Cincinnati(not to be mistaken for a research facility).

What happened to great names like Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium? Maybe the people in Texas have the right idea when they name their ballparks The Ballpark in Arlington and The Ballpark at Union Station (That’s it, I’ll name this space “The Column in L’Observateur”).

And don’t think New Orleans is immune to such shenanigans. There’s alsobeen talk about putting corporate names on both the Superdome and Zephyr Field.

Of course, golfers and auto racers don’t seem to mind looking like walking billboards. Golfers promote the products they use on everything from theircaps to their bags. And I dare you find a spot on a NASCAR car that doesnot have a sponsor’s logo. In a picture of a pit crew the other day, therewas even a sponsor’s logo on the jack being used. Please.Golf and auto racing are also famous for having sponsors’ names on their events. In golf this week, we had the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classicon the PGA Tour, the Home Depot Invitational on the Senior PGA Tour and the Chick-Fil-A Charity Champ-ionship on the LPGA Tour (isn’t that kind of politically incorrect?).

Already this golf season, there’s been the Mercedes Championships, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (formerly known as the Crosby Clambake) and the WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play championships.

And of course, next week in New Orleans, there is the Compaq Classic (formerly the Entergy Classic, the Freeport-McDermott Classic, the Freeport-McMoRan Classic, the USF&G Classic and the New Orleans Open).

At least the Masters have not gone that route yet.

The same cannot be said for the college bowl games. Let’s see, you havethe Outback Bowl, the CompUSA Florida Citrus Bowl, the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl, the Nokia Sugar Bowl, the FedEx Orange Bowl and of course, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

Not that using sports to promote businesses is anything new. A.E. Staley, astarch producer in Decateur, Illinois, founded the Decateur Staleys in the fledgling National Football League in the early 1920s as a means to promote his product. And there was the infamous right field wall in EbbetsField with all its advertisements.

On reflection, however, I’ll forego this tradition in sports to place a sponsor’s name on everything.

I guess I’m just a purist. For me, the only sign that should be behind homeplate is “No Pepper.” I like my ballparks to be named after teams, citiesor people, not after products. Just give me the scores and lineups and notmoney plugs.

Unless, of course, there is a sizeable check involved. After all, isn’t themotto for sports in the 1990s that great line from Jerry Maguire, “Show Me the Money!”

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