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Your High School's Football Field Just Became Ad Space

This article is more than 10 years old.

The National Federation of State High School Associations, which oversees the state entities that oversee most of prep sports in America, is now making available to advertisers the green, green grass (or synthetic turf) of high school football fields.

On Feb. 9, NFHS announced its football rule changes for 2012, and, besides a concussion-protection rule that forces a play who gets his helmet dislodged to sit out the next play, one new rule is 1-2-3l, which for the first time allows member high schools to sell on-field advertising. Previously, a high school could sell space in the end zone, or signage around the field, or even sell naming rights to the stadium itself. But now, as long as the advertisements don't obstruct the yard lines, hash marks or nine-yard marks, space can be sold on the field itself.

The NFHS news release on the subject didn't detail why the sacred ground of high school fields is now available for commercials. But there's no doubt that schools -- in the face of declining property-tax collections and taxpayer resistance to pay higher rates to make up for them --  are under pressure to find alternative sources of funding. And there is going to be interest in the space. Companies have found school and youth sports an efficient mechanism to reach young athletes, and the parents who spend scads of money on them.