By Steven Butler
Western Sun staff writer
In the world of sports, everything from the cups the athletes drink out of to the stadiums they play in is up for grabs.
The major sports arenas are a playing field for the teams as well as major companies hoping to influence the public on their company’s product.
While there are some positives and negatives to sponsors, a line has to be drawn somewhere. But where is that line?
I feel like in some sports, athletes have essential sponsors, they have gray area sponsors, and then there are sponsors that are unnecessary for their sport and make one a slave to corporate companies.
In basketball the top players are wearing Nike’s, Adidas, and Jordan’s. Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are holding it down for Nike while Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are the top dudes at Adidas, and Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade are the dudes at Jordan’s.
Shoes are a very essential part of basketball so companies want to have the best of the best on their shoe company. When it comes to a sport like basketball, one’s shoes are a huge part of the sport. So having a shoe sponsor is an essential part of basketball.
It makes sense for sponsors to go get these great athletes and try to put their shoes under the top players feet.
Red Bull I feel like is the gray area on its sponsoring people. Red Bull is an energy drink that holds down more then 50% of the market in energy drinks sales. It is a company that sponsors various athletes.
It sponsors a lot of extreme athletes including a lot of skateboarders in the world, but some companies won’t even allow their riders to ride for them if they had an offer.
Although Red Bull has nothing to do with skateboarding or anything extreme everyone drinks something to rejuvenate while on the field of his/her preferred sport, so, you might as well get paid for drinking it.
Now NASCAR is a “sport” that cracks me up with its sponsors. At times I feel like NASCAR only exists so companies can have their names and products advertised.
I saw a guy win a race the other day and he was on the podium about to receive his trophy and his main sponsor was Oreos and Ritz. What do cookies and crackers have to do with cars and racing?
NASCAR is a true example of being a slave to advertising and where it just doesn’t make sense why any one of these drivers are sponsored by the companies they are endorsed by.
I guess at the end of the day though everybody has to get paid one way or another. I bet most people wish they could be getting paid without selling their life away to certain companies, but this is life and people got to live.
If I were in the brand name shoes of some of these athletes who are just trying to make a living and support their families, maybe I would accept all the random sponsors too. But I’m not in that position, so I am writing about how ridiculous it kind of is and questioning where to draw the line on some of these issues?
