• NY Times, Wednesday, March 22, 2006 6:30 PM

In a move that some marketers hope will “open a new front in the commercialization of professional sports,” according to The New York Times, there’s a newly named Major League Soccer team in town--the New York Red Bulls, previously the MetroStars. Austria-based energy company Red Bull paid the Anschutz Entertainment Group more than $100 million this month for the rights to the club, a share of a planned stadium and the stadium's naming rights. “Any company that does significant sports marketing and sponsorship has to be looking at this very closely," Tim Westerbeck tells the Times. Westerbeck is a branding expert and the managing director and principal at Lipman Hearne in Chicago.

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