The field on which sport is played has always borne the lines that limit the borders in the rules of the game.  Increasingly those lines are being added to digitally and in reality by commercial messages that enhance a sponsorship or a brand.
The New York Times carried a feature recently about the ways in which College Basketball in the US was looking to the ‘90 feet of maple‘ as a primary way of getting a message across about whet they stood for.
The fir trees stained into the floor at the Nike sponsored Oregan State hall reflect the legendary ‘tall firs’ team that won the NCAA Championship in 1939.
This reflection of a point in history as a marker for the identity of a programme has come about as a reaction to the starker branding options that first signalled the commercialisation of the court.
Garish colours and overt branding have given way at the top end now to a more subtle display that in many ways becomes more memorable.
The use of 3D paint on matches at the Aviva and other stadia is now fully accepted as a way to deliver stand out branding to a principle sponsor.  Three used this on Tuesday night and RBS has been a long term advocate as part of Six Nations pitch branding.  The technology has advanced now so that the paint is less likely to come off on the first player to slide through the logo but England still generally leave the pitch looking more like smurfs than stars.
Basketball courts around Ireland have long been adorned with advertising by 7Up who were involved in original campaigns to install them in schools but if the trends from America are to cross the atlantic it may be that the next generation of courts, and possibly other pitches as well will at least be part funded by messages under the feet.
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