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Outdoor entertainment and recreational games are introduced, such as bowling, music and dancing
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The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first sports team in history to have each member of the team on salary
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Recording and sound on motion picture film is developed
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The first radio stations begin airing regularly scheduled programming
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First known individual player endorsement deal between golfer Gene Sarazen and Wilson Sporting Goods
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Coke teams up with the Olympics as an “official sponsor” of an athletic event
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RCA establishes the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
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The first major female endorsement deal takes place with Wilson Sporting Goods agreeing to sponsor the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA)
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Eccentric owner of the Chicago White Sox, Bill Veeck, sends 3’7” Eddie Gaedel to the plate in an official game as a publicity ploy as one of the most outrageous promotions seen in professional sports
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The first color television sets are offered to consumers
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Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
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The first regional theme park, Six Flags, opens in Texas
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An all sports television network makes its debut on cable television as the world gets its first glimpse of ESPN
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Evidence of the power of an alliance between corporations and sports is taken to a new level as Syracuse University becomes the first college to offer naming rights to a facility as they introduce the “Carrier Dome”
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Turner Cable Network launches the first all news television network, CNN
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IBM makes the first personal computers available for consumers
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Music Television (MTV) is launched
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The first compact disc is released
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The Olympics become commercialized, and made profitable for the first time under the leadership of Peter Ueberoth
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Nintendo introduces its home entertainment system for video games
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German inventor Fraunhofer Gesellschaft receives a patent for MP3 technology
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The lucrative possibilities of naming rights reaches new heights as the Chicago Bears become the first professional franchise to sell the naming rights of their team as Bank One becomes the “presenting” sponsor and in all media the team is mentioned as “The Chicago Bears presented by Bank One”
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Apple introduces iTunes, the first commercial online music service
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Nintendo launches the Wii platform, revolutionizing the video game industry with the introduction of motion sensor technology
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Amazon introduces a digital book “e-reader” device known as the Kindle
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FIFA (the governing body for soccer internationally) estimates that just over 3 billion people – nearly half of the world’s population – tunes in to watch the 2010 FIFA Men’s World Cup Final held in South Africa
