You knew it would happen eventually: naming rights for high school stadiums. Eventually came to Hempfield School District Wednesday when it announced an agreement with Lancaster’s Market Street Sports Group to procure corporate sponsorships for Hempfield facilities and activities.
MSSG consists of ex-Lancaster Barnstormers front office folk Joe Pinto, Jason Jesberger and Jeff Bertoni (the erstwhile I.M. Fun). They already have a marketing-and-sponsorship agreement with the PIAA which will lead to “The PIAA Football Championships brought to you by Tucks Medicated Pads,” or some such.
It isn’t all about naming rights. At Hempfield there may be, for example, Black Knight bobblehead dolls given away at football games, t-shirts shot into the crowd, scoreboard histrionics, student-produced pre- and post-game shows, scholarship and/or internships programs. All sponsored, of course.
Hempfield can’t be blamed for trying to find revenue, of course. But it isn’t unreasonable to wonder if this is the first step down the road to even more pressure on high school kids to win.
Joe Paterno sometimes talks about how we’ve screwed up big-time college sports so that he has to win football games to fill a 108,000-seat stadium and wear the Nike swoosh and allow TV to tell him when his games will start, all so football can fund Penn State’s other 28 sports.
What if 20 years from now most big high schools have deals like Hempfield’s, and that leads to a direct relationship between say, football wins and revenue?
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Hempfield Superintendent Dave Poore said at a press conference Wednesday. “I can’t give you an answer.”
This isn’t a criticism of Poore, who’s just doing what’s best for Hempfield and can’t be expected to stop doing it because of a theoretical problem that might, possibly happen years from now, maybe. It isn’t a criticism of the MSSG guys, who seem sincerely determined to do what they do with taste and professionalism. Clearly, in this case, best interests are at heart.
It’s just something to think about.
