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Stadium brand marketing goes off the deep
end. The Patriots' stadium takes corporate
branding to a new low.

FOXBORO, May 28, 2002. Unsportsmanlike conduct? The latest example of stadium sponsorships run amok is CMGI Field in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where the New England Patriots football team plays. Fans can leave their cars at the Taurus New England Ford Dealers parking lot, stroll through the uBid stadium gate, and meet under McDonald's golden arches near the end zone.

Two years ago, the Patriots sold the naming rights to the stadium itself to the now-struggling Andover Internet firm CMGI for $114 million. Since then, the naming game has spread to new heights, affixing FleetBoston Financial Corp. to the front gate and Fidelity Investments to the luxury clubhouse.

"It went from naming the field to naming the entrance to the field to naming sections of the stadium," Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist, a specialist in sports business, told The Boston Globe. "You can put your name on anything."
If you represent a company in the area and haven't sliced a piece of this pie for yourself, a third gate is still for sale, as well as the coveted restroom sponsorships.