Bothersome Trend

Has anyone ever noticed something?  I think it's more sports related than anything else, but particularly mundane things have fallen victim to this epidemic.  It's called naming rights.  Basically, companies pay millions, sometimes billions of dollars for a building, entity, or idea to put their product in the name of it.  It's crazy how this is going on.  Buildings and stadiums now have products and companies all over them.  Places like the Louisiana Superdome is now called the Mercedes Benz Superdome.  That big stadium in Miami, used to be Joe Robbie Stadium, named after the original owner of the Dolphins.  Now it's called SunLife Stadium, after being called Pro Player Stadium and Land Shark Stadium.  Seriously?  I never know where anything is when they renamed all the old stadiums.  I was watching ESPN and even the press conferences have business names on them.  The little wall should have the name of the team on it, not the name of a bank and a donut chain.  Even the studios of one of my favorite radio stations is named after a bank, "from the something, something financial studios."  Wait, you mean a room with an equalizer and soundboard needs to be sponsored?  Kind of annoying.  The questions asked during SportsCenter now have a sponsor.  It's crazy how this just continues to happen.  You know, for such a recession, we sure do spend our hard earned cash on stupid things.  Yeah I'm sure this gets the company's name out there, but at what cost.  I mean it's truly mind boggling how they cry poor mouth and then spend oodles of dollars just to get a 2 second blurb on television, radio, or whatever.  No one says, "Hey, let's head over to Heinz Field to see a game."  They say, "Let's go see the Steelers."  If these companies were smart, like Red Bull is, they'll sponsor the actual team and be called the New York Red Bulls. Could you imagine the Portland Trail Blazers changing their name to the Portland Nikes?  On second thought, stick to the stadiums.  That would be a travesty.