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            Advertising has long been a part of the pro sporting world. In fact, it’s quite literally impossible to watch your favorite team play these days in person, on television, or on the radio without a countless amount of companies making themselves visible, hoping they’ll catch your eye and choose to invest in their products.

We’re all very familiar with television and radio commercials but step foot inside a modern day stadium venue and you’ll find relentless ads sprawled out across scoreboards, on walls, on scrolling or spinning boards, and in general, every ounce of space that can be exploited.

However, with each new innovation in the competitive world of sports advertising (especially those that begin to infringe on the integrity of the game), the average sports fan is left to wonder, how much is too much? Advertising has now made its mark on the ball field, court, pitch, rink, and even gridiron leaving some (call them ‘purists’ if you will) feeling that they have no place on the actual field of play.

In June of 2004, a marketing partnership with Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, and Major League Baseball allowed “Spider-Man 2” logos to be featured on the actual bases and on-deck circles at 15 major league stadiums across the country.

Somehow I feel that old-timers such as Ty Cobb rolled over in their graves as soon as Barry Bonds rounded third base amongst a sea of Spider-Man signage. Promotions like these are advantageous to all parties involved but many fans feel that it cheapens the experience and is done in bad taste.

The real problem, at least from my perspective lies in the fact that businesses have branched out and latched their slimy paws onto a sacred part of every sports team; the uniform.

Soccer teams both from Major League Soccer (MLS) and across the pond in the European Leagues have featured advertisements on their kits (uniforms) much larger than the actual team logo itself for quite some time. It’s reached the point where someone new to the game might assume Sounders FC is actually “Team Xbox Live.”

Recently, our very own Seattle Storm became the third team in the WNBA to sell space on their jersey to a large scale corporation. The Storm announced the lucrative $1 million deal with the search-engine, “Bing” last week. The new jersey will be of the aforementioned mold utilized by pro soccer: a gigantic “Bing” logo across the chest and a barely visible team patch in the upper right-hand corner.

As a diehard football fan, I cannot say I was pleased to discover last season that the NFL had granted teams permission to sell ad space on their practice jerseys. Yes, they’re only on the practice shirts for now but the recipe for disaster is there and I’m going to lose my lunch if I ever see the Seahawks run out of the tunnel plastered with ads for “Cialis” or “Lover’s Package”.

No matter what positive spin they attempt to defend this issue, this sports fan will never be in favor of cheap looking product placement on the ballfield.