Back in the day, sports fans could follow their favorite sport(s) based on the months of the year: Baseball ran from April to October. The NFL played from September to December, with playoffs in January and the Super Bowl in February. The NBA and NHL went from October to May, followed by the playoffs and championship.

Another exciting NBA season has come to a close, and with it, another big year off the court with several multimillion-dollar ad campaigns starring NBA athletes. The association has never been so deep with dynamic, nationally marketable superheroes, with whom corporations can feel good about aligning their brands.

By leveraging big data and multiple touch points, they will be able to provide tailored deals to millions of buyers and sellers.

Perhaps it's an overstatement to suggest that American sports properties suffer from a crisis of confidence among their fans and target audiences. However, it has become apparent of late that some of the same sensitivities that U.S. corporations have had to battle in sustaining, rebuilding and managing their reputations over recent years have been amplified for the owners and stewards of sports properties. Those that embrace the reality that corporate reputations matter and are proactive in their protection of these reputations are headed in the right direction.

Has soccer finally "arrived" as a major sport in the U.S.A.? I get asked this question all the time about the world's game. Thanks to our friends in the Big Apple and the UK, the answer may be "yes," sooner than later, as seen by the English Premier League's Manchester City and Major League Baseball's New York Yankees' recent purchase of an MLS expansion team for $100 million. The 75%-25% ownership split between the two legendary sports businesses (who certainly are no strangers to spending money), also includes plans to build a stadium for the team in Queens. That, alone, …

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.

Near the shores of Rehoboth Beach, Del., stands a premier destination for traveling youth baseball and softball teams. The 95-acre facility at Sports at the Beach features 16 fields, 30 batting cages and dormitory accommodations for visiting teams. From March to November, ball clubs from all over the East Coast descend upon its bluegrass-sod fields to participate in weekend and week-long tournaments.