Ambridge Area High School recently sold the naming rights to their football field in order to off-set Gov. Tim Corbett’s budget cuts. The Ambridge Shop n’ Save signed a 10-year contract to be the corporate sponsor of the field, renaming it the Ambridge Shop ‘n Save Field at Moe Rubenstein Stadium. Along with the field, a few other sponsorship deals have also been worked out. Ambridge is now well on its way to raising the $60,000 needed to keep the seventh, eighth and ninth-grade sports programs. The success of these deals in the Ambridge district raises a good question to Freedom: why don’t we do the same? Freedom has a strict policy in regards to not allowing businesses to purchase sponsorship rights. With the recent budget cuts, however, it seems almost absurd to continue to prohibit such negotiations. For instance, allowing a local company to purchase the naming rights to our field could help the school financially with things such as: funding the pool, paying for uniforms and continuing the one-to-one program. In addition to maintaining the pool, outside sponsorship can benefit Freedom many other ways financially. Having McDonald’s logos all over the elementary schools might not be the best approach, but why not Dick’s Sporting Goods logos? It seems unfair that Freedom students are unable to benefit from such a deal, especially since Dick’s Sporting Goods encourages athletics. Picking and choosing who the school allows as acceptable sponsors would probably be a better approach than not allowing any at all. The average kid sees thousands of advertisements a day; it’s not like one Pepsi logo on a scoreboard is going to affect them so significantly that this should even be an issue. With the budget cuts just starting to take a small toll this year, they are bound to get worse. Freedom should loosen up on sponsorship rights and start allowing students to benefit from these types of financial deals.