The marketing of naming rights on sport arenas has been a long established business in the United States, but was widely unknown in Europe in general and in Germany in particular. Within the last years though, especially against the background of the Soccer World Championship 2006 in Germany, naming rights of sport arenas, especially soccer arenas, are sold. By doing that, the clubs are able to finance those arenas. Since re-naming the ëVolkspark-Stadioní in Hamburg into ëAOL-Arenaí in 2001 and the fact that the newly build Munich arena will hold the name of Germanyís number one insurance company ëAllianceí for the next 15 years, a boom which has by now reached almost all German top-arenas, was created. Against this background, this paper will discuss the underlying conditions for this ongoing trend. Further on, it will be shown, if and to what extend this kind of sponsoring engagement can be seen as a useful extension to the classical communication mix for companies.