I’ve been hanging out a lot at McMullan’s Irish Pub recently and I have a growing addiction to the Setanta Sports Channel.  When the hockey is done for the night, I can watch the English Barclay’s Premier League, rugby, and even Australian Rules Football.

Now, obviously, it’s quite common to see sponsorship ads all over the players’ uniforms and especially in hockey (click here for an example).  The ice surfaces in Europe are also becoming inundated with adverts as well.

They’ve taken it to another level on European soccer pitches or fields.  In the middle of the field is a painted advert of probably the stadium sponsor.  It’s painted in such a way that to the prime seating areas and primary camera angle (centerline), it looks like a normal shaped advert.  In reality, it’s a classic optical illusion.  I’m having trouble at the moment trying to find a decent picture of such an example but if you get the chance to watch English Premiership on GolTV, Fox Soccer, or Setanta Sports (I believe all of them are on satTV), it’s pretty prevalent.  It’s not just a little design in the middle of the field; it’s huge.

Because the NHL thrives on revenue streams (all the while having a raging erection of the siren song of a national TV deal), this may actually be more conspicuous for better or worse.  I don’t like it at all.

Posted by SYF from a "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on 04/08/09 at 07:01 PM ET

wait until it’s on the jerseys.

i told you people this league lies about its revenues. this news shows that they cant make the money MLB,NFL and NBA makes so they had sell every little part of their soul to make money.

they are better off letting bad finanical teams go bankrupt and tell the union jobs are going to be lost but in the long run the talent in the sport will get better and league will be in better shape finanically.

Posted by FlyersFan on 04/08/09 at 07:25 PM ET

Better than adding more TV time outs

Posted by jimbo on 04/09/09 at 08:53 PM ET