After building anticipation for something major over the weekend, the WNBA announced yesterday that the Phoenix Mercury will be allowing Lifelock to use their jerseys as human billboards.
Greg Johns of the Seattle PI wonders whether this trend is akin to selling one's soul.
I hardly think so.
The Fanster Phoenix Mercury community blog invited a few of us WNBA bloggers to chime in on a roundtable discussion about the issue along with Kevin Pelton (Seattle Storm/Basketball Prospectus), Greg Esposito (Fanster.com), Alex Chambers (13 Teams, 1 Journey), and Fat Louie (Women's Sports Blog). I enjoyed reading their opinions and recommend taking a look.
The rough consensus: it's a business.
Or maybe that's just what I thought...
I think Pelton makes the best point when he wrote, "In time, however, this is sure to blow over."
I totally agree -- there's a long history of corporate intervention in sport and this is really no different. I'd prefer to have the WNBA around for the long haul than disappear because of fear of taking corporate money. After a while, it would be a waste of time to complain about this.
Sad, I know... but let's get real: cash rules everything around pro sports. Period.
