A nearly century-old college football stadium will be decorated with advertisements for the first time ever. Michigan Stadium, otherwise known as the Big House, unveiled its first three sponsors to ever be advertised on the stadium itself on Wednesday, reports Austin Meek of The Athletic. "Coca-Cola, Meijer and Google Gemini will be the first three sponsors to display their logos inside the 107,601-seat Big House, Michigan announced Wednesday," Meek wrote.
"The school released renderings of the sponsors’ ads on the sides of the video board, the wall at the base of the stands and the national championship sign on the south side of the stadium." Those renderings, though, are apparently not the only places you'll see those brands. Michigan spokesman Dave Ablauf told Meek that "the sponsor logos likely will be integrated into other aspects of the in-stadium experience, including programming on the video board." They'll join other advertiser logos that have already been present in the stadium, though not on the physical building. For instance, the Allstate logo is on the nets behind the goal posts, the Gatorade logo is visible on the sideline hydration gear and, of course, the Jordan jumpman logo is on the players' equipment, including jerseys.
Teams are adding sponsor patches to jerseys, the latest in a long line of moneymaking tools like selling naming rights to stadiums, on-field sponsor logos and a variety of other advertisements. Schools, especially blue bloods like Michigan, often tout tradition and eschew what they may view as tacky intrusions of money, but even in Ann Arbor, at the end of the day, money talks. And when programs need cash to compete in building a roster, it was only a matter of time before even mighty Michigan found an acceptable price.
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