The WNBA on Memorial Day weekend began its 18th season of play. That's about 17 more seasons than some early prognosticators gave the NBA's sibling.

Levi's' $220 million naming rights deal with the new San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, opening in 2014, is a bold move for the brand.

As former MRA presidents who have worked on both the client and agency side of marketing research, my business partners and I have been around the block more than our receding hair lines would sometimes like to admit. But with the accumulation of all of this "scar tissue," it strikes us as amusing and potentially disturbing to see so much of the buzz in marketing research and sports sponsorship ROI assessment being attributed to purportedly new methodologies and unique panels of respondents. At the end of the day, the best research inevitably comes down to asking the right questions or …

A few years ago, I was asked by a sports trade publication my opinion on what the marketability of Tim Tebow would be as he entered the NFL. I stated that he would have difficulty gaining sponsors due to his outspoken beliefs. (Marketers shy away from anything polarizing when using endorsers.) Well, I was wrong on this one. Tebow Time was born, and his uplifting personality became infectious. Famously infectious to the point that Tebow transcended sport for the masses; sponsors signed him for appearances at events and in national advertising. It was like watching someone win the lottery.