Seneca Wallace for the Heisman Trophy presented by Suzuki! Wait – that hasn’t officially been named as such (yet)? Suzuki is still just a regular sponsor? Thank goodness! This is an example of a case that hasn’t quite happened yet, though I’d put even odds at it happening soon. But what about all those other arenas and events plastered with garish names of Nokia, PNC and Edward Jones?

After two weeks of NFL games at Network Associates Coliseum, Heinz Field and Stadium, it’s time to add on to my “When advertisements attack” column of last semester. Call it “When advertisements attack II: Hang the logos high.” The past 10 years of destroying old landmarks and replacing them with corporate playgrounds or killing the spirit of existing ones by selling out has got to stop.

This isn’t NASCAR, the “sport” of advertisers, by advertisers, for people sheepish enough to specifically use products that sponsor their drivers (as the Des Moines Register reported Saturday). This isn’t just putting your logo on the back of a shirt. This is wiping history away from old venues or painting a detracting veneer on top of new ones, from Gillette Stadium to Candlestick Park – excuse me, 3Com – excuse me, San Francisco Stadium because apparently 3Com’s naming rights expired.

According to USA Today’s NFL Preview section, 14 of 32 NFL teams this year have sold out to names like Lincoln Financial (Eagles) and Raymond James (Buccaneers). And that’s not counting those business that went belly-up or didn’t renew their contracts. For example, Pro Player (Dolphins), Adelphia (Titans) and PSINet (Ravens).

It’s even worse when the pre-existing, historic venues get something else slapped on them. I refer you back to Candlestick Park – the same Stick that stood the 1989 earthquake – brought down to a number and three letters. Joe Robbie and Jack Murphy paid for the stadiums their beloved Dolphins and Chargers played in, only to have their legacies trampled by Pro Player and Qualcomm. On a more local level, Cedar Rapids, the “City of Five Seasons,” sold the Five Seasons Center to U.S. Cellular.

Enough about the NFL. There’s just as much disgust, perhaps more, at the end of the college football season. All over the place, it’s the FedEx Orange Bowl, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, and the worst of them all, the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic (now just the SBC Cotton Bowl). That is, the worst that still included the real name. Teams haven’t played the Copper Bowl in years; it’s just the Insight.com Bowl now. Iowa has played in both the Builders Square Alamo Bowl and the Sylvania Alamo Bowl. In some logos the corporate name overshadows the game being played in the first place.

It’s so bad that the BCS championship trophy doesn’t even have a real name! It’s just “The Sears Trophy.” That came about at approximately the same time the last game surrendered to the corporations; we now know it as the “Rose Bowl presented by AT&T.” As if the “presented by” almost-afterthought makes it more acceptable or something.

As disheartening as this all is, there is some resistance. The Denver Post, for example, announced that it would flat out ignore Invesco Funds, instead referring to it as the new Mile High Stadium. The company tried to call it “Invesco Field at Mile High,” hoping that it would both satisfy people and, obviously, that they would drop the last half, but never counted on an uprising by the people.

The fans have spoken out in other cities too. According to a July 30 article by the San Francisco Business Times, a proposal would outlaw selling naming rights in that city. Chicago stopped searching to rename Soldier Field after an outcry from veterans. And Green Bay and Kansas City’s fans (and owners – for the Packers, they’re technically one and the same) aren’t about to give up Lambeau and Arrowhead.

Of the stadiums still left with their dignity, it may not be long before they are reduced to dust and their successors given cold, unfeeling corporate names. If and when the Twin Cities build a new stadium, it most likely won’t be named for Hubert H. Humphrey, Jesse Ventura or anyone else. (And there’s already the Target Center up there.) For the Dallas Cowboys, if Texas Stadium is replaced or renovated, USA Today reported a naming rights deal will be pursued. The only new stadium this year without a corporate name, Seahawks Stadium, may not remain so for long.

Naming rights are not solely in the domain of the NFL and college bowl games, but those stadiums and events are the most outstanding, worst examples.

I hate using “corporate” like it’s a dirty word. But the dirt seems to belong when teams and events completely sell out their homes to be sullied for any amount of money.

Jeff Morrison

is a junior in journalism

and mass communication and political science from Traer. He is a copy editor for the Daily.