In relation to sports marketing, media organizations have emerged as assuming a critical role. The media is active in the marketing of sports, as they provide the various communication vehicles through which sports games are seen, read about, and heard (Thorne, Wright & Jones, 2001). Media companies traditionally have included television, newspaper, and radio (Thorne et al., 2001). According to Thorne et al., media rights, especially through television, have ?symbiotic? or closely knit relationships with sport, with sports aiding in building the media while media exposure aids in further building and establishing an audience for the sports industry. Consequently, as noted by the authors, as efforts are made by the media and the sports industry to enhance the numbers of viewers, readers, and listeners, stronger advertising revenue for the media firm are generated. As a result of t african mango his relationship, owners of media companies have increasingly acquired professional teams, leading to further complexity in the relationships that can exist between sports and the media. As further explained by Thorne et al., media interests often clash with those of teams and leagues under the Sports Broadcasting Act (1992, 15 U.S.C. 1291-95), which granted an antitrust exemption for broadcast rights to leagues, though teams’ sale of broadcast rights is subject to antitrust review. According to Kotler, Rein and Shields (2007), the direction of future trends in sports marketing are evidenced in a number of areas. Increasingly, the owner?s of sport properties form their own media company, providing a means for those in sports marketing to interact directly with consumers without the filter of traditional media (Kotler et al., 2007). An example of this trend offered by Kotler et al.