Spnsorships

Sunday was the traditional New York City Marathon held. This race encompasses all five boroughs of the city, starting on Staten Island and finishing in Manhattan's Central park. Usually there are 30 to 40 thousand participants from every corner of the earth. The various races are divided between the professionals and the amateurs. The pros, obviously are doing it for the glory and the money. That rest just for their own satisfaction.

Thousands and thousands participant come from different countries. I wonder that with today's travel restrictions how were these people able to manage that. Did all the 30 - 40 thousand had the required vaccines? Or at this time the rules did not apply?

What I find peculiar and I know I wrote about this before, but it bugs me, that who were the main sponsors of this race. Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is an Indian company with about a half a million employees, based in Mumbai and offices around the world. Good, god for them to employ all these people.

But why an American event in this country needs to be financed by an Indian company? Are there no American companies willing to pick up the tab? In my eyes this is a shame. Where are Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, the domestic airlines, Facebook, Microsoft and all other corporations that make billions of dollars a year. The sponsorship for such an event would not even show up in their profit list. I think they just don't care. They seem to want to keep their money a lot closer to their chests.

It is not unnoticeable that a multitude of sport events here and abroad are being sponsored by Emirates airline, Etihad  Airways and Qatar Airways. Their names, logos and their slogans are all over most of European soccer games including players uniforms and as well as in US teams. I guess when local businesses are not willing to support these teams the Emirates airline jumps in and help out.

Watching European soccer games I can not help but notice frequent ads by Gazprom, the quasi private Russian gas company. Is this to remind Europe that they are at their mercy as far as the natural gas supply is?