sign of bad management

when a company lays out--or pledges to lay out--lotsa money for naming rights, management must be questioned. lucas oil's promises to pay $120 million ($6million a year) for naming rights for the indianapolis colt's yet-to-be-built stadium.

these deals have a questionable history

The Wall Street Journal noted that companies which bought the rights to name stadiums after themselves often fell into bankruptcy or financial difficulty. Examples include Enron, T.W.A., PSI Net, Fruit of the Loom, 3 Com, Conseco, and CMGI Inc.

with several of the companies engaged in these deals involved in shaky industries (like the bankruptcy-a-month airline industry) or varying levels of skulduggery (bank one, conseco, mci, reliant...)
this use of corporate money and profits doesn't lend itself to stellar management