The commercial sponsorship of collegiate athletics is easily one of the most important features of a profitable college athletic department. Without shoe and uniform deals, many colleges and universities would need to suspend sports that are an economic liability, those which do not have large gate revenue or television contracts. An example of this would be a Division I College Football powerhouse that has a number of lucrative endorsement deals. The Football Team revenues generated by commercialization of the sport supports the Womens Lacrosse Team, the volleyball team, and other sports lower in popularity. So at the minimum, all college sports are commercialized by association.
On the level of professional sports, commercialization of sport is undoubtedly the most profitable, for both the advertiser and the fan. Without advertising support, professional sports would not have progressed to the number of franchises present today, and their financial stability would be questionable on an individual basis. NASCAR has taken the commercialization of sport to new levels of unabashed sport profiteering, with race cars that have become 200 mile per hour rolling billboards.
The prevalence of the number and quality of sports on television is directly attributable to the commercialization of sport. Without commercial sponsorship, fans would not be able to follow favored sports as closely as they desire, and at least in this aspect, the commercialization of sport has benefited society in providing entertainment.
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