When the 2016 Summer Olympics from Rio begin with the Opening Ceremony on Aug. 5 (although soccer starts two days earlier), it won't be hard for people to find sports competition, and it will be equally hard to avoid the necessary evil of marketing that accompanies the Games.

Twenty-seven million championship game viewers. $11+ million in prize money. Screaming fans. Overflowing arenas.

You did it! You decided to sponsor a team, arena or player in a sport that supports your company's goals, indexes highly in your target market or is simply your CEO's favorite past time. Now what? Most companies fail because they did not think beyond ticket sales, stadium signage, the logos on the jerseys, or the few times a year you get to interact with the player. These are the basics of sponsorship deals. It is the "ticket" to entry.

It's MLB All-Star Tuesday, the unofficial middle of summer. Those figurative "dog days" are before us, and with the NBA and NHL on hiatus, NFL training camps still a few weeks away, MLB's playoff push and a questionably compelling Olympics still a month or so away, the mindset of our sports fan customers may be fertile ground for those who can truly capture attention. But what will it take to resonate, here on the back nine of a year that has certainly been fraught with a barrage of often sensationalistic and negative news from within and outside of sports?

No matter where you spent your holiday weekend, NBA free agency news likely found you. No secluded lake, no backyard barbecue, no camping trip was remote enough to escape the headlines - and massive contracts - generated in the past 72 hours. For those lucky few free agents, it was a payday in the making since at least October 2014.