Another early NFL team was the Tonawanda Kardex of surburban Buffalo. The American Kardex Company was a making of index cards and sponsored the team. Their real nickname was the Lumbermen, but most (including them NFL) list their nickname in records as the
Tonawanda Kardex. I know, because I've more than a few times wrote to the NFL or the hall of fame for some of their early records back before the days of the internet and sites such as pro-football-reference.
Even more recently, we had a team named after a movie franchise: the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... m_Logo.svg
And long before that ever happened, there were stadium naming rights. Some of which may surprise you. Partly because it was the team owners who slapped their own company's names on the parks their teams played in. Wrigley Field was the eponymous name given to it by the team's owner, whose business bore the same name.
Three major league teams are owned by the families of alcohol producers, simply so they can put their family name (which happens to be the name of a beer) on the stadium. One, went so far as to create an entirely new brand of beer (Busch) just so their named stadium in St. Louis could also be advertising alcohol (MLB banned beer brands from being used for stadium names, but not family names such as the case with Miller and Coors in Milwaukee and Denver, respectively).
Even as some of the stadiums progress, eventual holdouts give way. Cleveland's trio of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena (both named after their primary team owners) and Municipal Stadium and eventually Cleveland Browns Stadium (named after the city and the new stadium after the team) eventually gave way to the corporatized Progressive Field, Quicken Loans Arena, and FirstEnergy Stadium. The last city to not have one of it's Big Four teams playing in a sponsored park's name (not counting Green Bay, as that is the Milwaukee market and exist due to a rather interesting story of NFL history. Though it involves HS Football, so it's worthy here).
But, we've long since gone from the days of Forbes Field, Three Rivers Stadium, Civic Arena, Buffalo Auditorium, Riverfront Stadium, Veterans Stadium, the Spectrum, Pontiac Silverdome, King Dome, Astrodome, Georgia Dome, Louisiana Superdome, Texas Stadium, Joe Robbie Stadium, Soldier Field, Mile High Stadium, Candlestick Park, Memorial Coliseum, Jack Murphy Stadium, Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome, Arrowhead Stadium, Foxboro Stadium, etc.
But, there is one name, that might seem a bit interesting in all this 'sports sponsorship'...
The Rose Bowl. The Grandaddy of them All. Was nothing more than a game put on and namesake sponsored by the Tournament of Roses to go along with their Rose Parade events that week. The stadium they built for it, the famed Rose Bowl, again, was named for them by them. To promote themselves.
Sports is a vehicle for sponsorship. It is not the other way around. Want to take sponsorship out of sports. Best to find a ball and glove and head out to the backyard. Because that's the only place a sponsor hasn't found a way in.
