He's still smiling from his deal with Nike and the thought of coming out to 2Pac's music.

	This Simpsons episode could become reality.

Corporate sponsorship is everywhere. It's rare to find a stadium or arena that bears a name that can actually help you associate who plays there, such as Yankee Stadium or Maple Leaf Gardens. Instead we are inundated with stadiums that are named after financial institutes, airline companies and software makers. I don't think we are very far away from seeing companies purchase teams and turn them into their local office sports team. That episode of the Simpsons where Mr. Burns brought in Darryl Strawberry, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens and Ken Griffey Jr. to play on the company softball team may become reality. Even the telecasts of games are now saturated with corporate sponsorship. This is especially apparent with hockey and baseball. Someone sponsors every goal, powerplay, homerun, pitching change and inning change. Apple Autoglass has been sponsoring Blue Jays pitching changes for years. Wow, that must be some kind of advertising budget with the way the Jays pitching staff and bullpen has performed this year.

	Ichiro's popularity has opened up new revenue opportunities.

Every once and a while I'll catch an old hockey game from the 80's and its strange to not see any advertisements on the rink boards, kind of like seeing Alex Trebeck without the mustache. Back then rink boards were kept completely blank, just white board, that's it. I'm sure when we look back at games in a few years time we'll find it really odd that there was no holographic image that appeared on the ice. Baseball has also taken on the idea of including ads on their outfield walls. You have to admit it's pretty clever how the Gap Stores have included ads on right-centerfield and left-centerfield wall areas more commonly known as "the gap's". Safeco Field in Seattle has capitalized on the enormous popularity of Ichiro Suzuki in his native country by selling ad space in the ballpark to Japanese companies. In Japan, TV networks can't show ads during the game, so to generate revenue ads are sold to appear throughout the stadium. They are then visible to viewers. Since so many of the Mariners games are broadcast in Japan it was a perfect opportunity for both the Mariners and Japanese TV networks to capitalize.

As much as we think that corporate sponsorship has become prominent in major North American sports it's still nothing compared to the type of activity that occurs in NASCAR and European soccer and hockey. These sports treat their athletes like walking billboards. NASCAR plasters ad after ad on their drivers and their cars. European soccer sponsorship is big business. Jerseys are labeled with company names and in fact the company names are larger than the players name or crest of the team. The top four shirt sponsorship deals in the English Premiership are as follows:

Manchester United: 7.5 million pounds per year from Mobile Phone company Vodafone
Chelsea: 6 million pounds per year from airline company Fly Emirates
Liverpool: 5 million pounds from Carlsberg beer
Arsenal: 5 million pounds from BT Cellnet's O2 mobile phone company

Teams are also getting more proactive in their approach of attracting fans to the games. The Atlanta Falcons employed the services of QB phenom Mike Vick to generate greater ticket sales. The Falcons recorded a message from Vick urging fans to come out to game and cheer them on. Fans were delighted when they answered their phones and were greeted with this message from Vick:

"Hi. This is Mike Vick, quarterback of your Atlanta Falcons. As I'm sure you know, we've got a big game this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. We've already beat them once in their house, and I'm sure my cousin, Aaron Brooks, is gonna be looking for some revenge. That's why we need the 12th man out there, making some noise at the Georgia Dome, cheering us on. You've made a huge difference this year, and we definitely appreciate it. So bring the same enthusiasm Sunday, and help cheer us to victory. Thank you."

The Ottawa Senators employed a similar strategy during the playoffs last year. I received a call from Chief Operating Officer Cyril Leeder urging me that now was a perfect time to purchase season tickets for next year and in doing so I would get placed on the advanced playoff ticket sale list. Not sure how successful the campaign was but I have to think it would have carried more clout if the message came from Wade Redden, Patrick Lalime or Marian Hossa.

	Deep down Avril has to be an avid golfer.

The PGA has room to get creative in sprucing up the advertising ad appeal of their game. Why not have players walking up to the first tee with music much the same way boxers walk to the ring? Come on, wouldn't it be great to see Tiger Woods walk up to the tee accompanied by the music styling of 2Pac's Picture me Rollin'? Golfer Fred Funk would have a plethora of music choices from the 70's. While on the music theme why hasn't the PGA picked up Avril Lavigne's song "Losing grip" to use in ads or tour promotion? If not the PGA, at least a golf club grip maker.

The rising cost of sports makes the need for sports teams and leagues to seek revenue from corporate avenues a point of survival rather than greed. The fact is with great player power from the advent of free agency, the constant rate of technological change and the need to have state of the art amenities, sports owners need to seek increased forms of revenue generation to sustain the current course of action in sports. So next time you see yourself overloaded with corporate jargon at a sporting event be understanding because this is simply the reality of sports today.