Corporate sponsors water down the fan's experience

It used to be going to a professional sports event gave you a sense of the area.

Now, thanks to corporate sponsorships, the hometown identity of a stadium or arena has lost its luster.

Gone are historic stadiums with great names like the Boston Garden, Veterans Stadium and Tiger Stadium, and in are their less identifiable counterparts, the TD Garden, Lincoln Financial Field and Comerica Park.

Since the early to mid-1990s, so many professional sports teams have sought, and received, the ability to build new stadiums, and with them came naming rights from the highest bidder, which to me, makes it a cold atmosphere.

Indiana has been no different as Conseco Fieldhouse replaced Market Square Arena in 1999, and the Hoosier Dome was renamed the RCA Dome in the early 1990s and replaced by the new Lucas Oil Stadium last year.

However, at least Indiana has chosen corporate sponsorships with ties to the area.

For me, a pair of the greatest stadium names were associated with the NBA. In Philadelphia, there was The Spectrum, which in name alone gave fans the feeling they were about to see something great. The other was in Los Angeles with the Great Western Forum.

Both of these stadium names were creative and sparked excitement, but their current counterparts, the Wachovia Center and Staples Center, respectively, leaves the casual fan, like me, wondering how the name fits the team or city.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, when corporate sponsors began appearing on the buildings, the prices of everything from tickets to a soda began to skyrocket.

Also came the "need" to include what I feel are unnecessary amenities, like sit-down restaurants, to the stadiums.

In some cases, owners are sacrificing seating capacity to make room for these things, which really take away from the experience of seeing a game live.

Case in point, the "new" Yankee Stadium has about 4,500 fewer seats, but has a Hard Rock Café and a steakhouse, among other things.

Personally, if I want to sit in a restaurant and watch a game on TV, there are many other place I would much rather do that then at NYY Steak, where it will fray my wallet not just from the cost of the ticket to get in the stadium, but also the $16.50 for a shrimp cocktail during a day game.

Given the opportunity, I'll gladly be a "Bleacher Bum" at Wrigley Field, or freeze my butt off at Lambeau Field in December than contribute to the suits diluting the appeal of seeing a game in person.