Fifteen of the world's leading companies, all owners of internationally known brand names, paid an average of $35 million to join the International Federation of Football Associations' (FIFA) "partnership" program for sponsors of World Cup 2002 (FIFA.com). Each will spend as much again in support marketing and promotion. The World Cup gives sponsors the rare opportunity for global exposure on a huge scale. Four out of five people on the planet are expected to see at least part of the tournament. The estimated cumulative television audience is 44 billion viewers in more than 200 countries. "The World Cup is a great platform to show the brand," says a spokeswoman for Adidas-Salomon, whose Adidas brand is FIFA's sporting equipment sponsor for the last World Cup. Soccer is not a top-watched sport in the U.S., but it is elsewhere. Take MasterCard, the credit-card company that is one of FIFA's 15 partner sponsors. It targets 17 key markets worldwide. In three quarters of them, soccer is the most watched sport. Twelve of the 17 markets have national teams playing in the finals (Soccer-Today “Is the World Cup Important Enough?” pg.22). The World Cup is also more sponsor-friendly than the only comparable global sporting event, the Olympic Games. Soccer matches' two 45-minute halves do not make for many commercial breaks during play, but they do offer continuous exposure to brands worthy enough to exploit the opportunity.

The costs of hosting a World Cup are unthinkable. For the next World Cup that is going to be hosted in Germany in 2006, the average cost for constructing a new stadium is about 150 million Euros (about $160 million dollars); there will be 12 new stadiums created. On the other hand, the World Cup ca

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