I’m not into sports but yesterday while watching the news headlines, I was quite non plussed to see the “Sony Ericsson Open” for tennis held in Miami Florida.
I wonder what it was called before it was sponsored by Sony Ericsson – The Miami Open? The Florida Open?
I realize the use of sponsor names in the title of the sports tournament is popular among tennis and golf. Go to the PGA site and pick any tournament and inevitably a sponsor’s name is tagged on – BMW Championship, Deutche Bank Championship, even a Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open.
For football, the name of the championships still remain pretty traditional – the Premier League, The UEFA Cup but I wonder how long it will be before it starts being called the Emirates Cup like the Emirates Stadium or Britney Spears Comeback Tour Cup or something ridiculous.
It makes me wonder how far the sponsors will go and how much money is going into these sports and what will happen when that particular sponsor stops sponsoring the event. Will the Sony Ericsson Open become the Nokia Open next year if Nokia pips SE at the stake? Or maybe we’ll see a Samsung Open next?
Is there a Proton open? Or did we just sponsor one of the cheapest most unassuming games around… like sepak takraw… which we lose at anyway?
