The business of sports means sponsors on jerseys are coming - Ingles

Willis McGahee is paid for.

Look at it that way, Bronco traditionalists.

McGahee, a running back who was the Broncos' top offensive free-agent signing this season, will make $3 million in bonus and salary this season.

Sports Authority is about to replace the stadium naming rights arrangement that Invesco had held with the Broncos and the Metropolitan Football Stadium District over the past 10 years at an average of $6 million a year.

The stadium district gets half, and the Broncos get the other $3 million. So, thanks to Sports Authority Field at Mile High, which will be the stadium's name through the year 2035, the Broncos can meet McGahee's paychecks this year.

Sorry, sports fans, but the Big Business of Sports insists that you surrender nostalgia in exchange for creating new revenue streams. Of the 31 NFL stadiums, 19 have naming right sponsors.

Understandably, Broncos fans want to hold on to Mile High Stadium, a name that dates all the way back to 1969. The name dwarfed into an addendum — Invesco Field at Mile High — in 2001.

We're not exactly talking Wrigley Field here. Then again, the Broncos had a much better run in 32 years at Mile High Stadium than the Cubs had in 95 years at Wrigley.

Like it or not, this is only the first step. The next step is putting corporate sponsors on the team names.

The Ford Broncos at Denver. It's coming. Give it 10 years, or when the NFL's recently negotiated collective bargaining agreement expires. The city or state will always stay with the name because a team can't detach itself from civic pride. But the sponsor gets first dibs because it has the money.

By 2021, Pat Bowlen will need help paying Andrew Luck's $60 million salary. Absurdly high, you say? Consider that 10 years ago, the NFL's highest-paid player was the Broncos' Brian Griese at $15.15 million. The highest-paid player this season is either Carolina defensive end Charles Johnson, who will make $34 million in signing bonus and salary this year, or Peyton Manning, who will make either — gulp! — $26.4 million or — double-gulp! — $54.4 million. The difference depends on whether a 2012 option bonus of $28 million that must be exercised in 2011 counts on this year's books or next year's.

Nostalgia isn't going to help the Colts pay/vest $54.4 million to one player.

The time will come when the Ford Broncos at Denver will play the Kraft Mac-n-Cheese Patriots at New England. Patriots owner Robert Kraft made his millions in paper products, not the Kraft food conglomerate. But Kraft and America's favorite side dish just sound right.

Look ahead to the 2021 NFL standings, and here are some other team names fans may well read:

• Dodge Rams at St. Louis

• Sea World Chargers of San Diego

• 20th Century Fox Chargers of Los Angeles (We are talking about the year 2021)

• Ewing Oil Cowboys at Dallas (Get it! Get it!)

• The Newmont Mining 49ers of San Francisco

• The Disney Pirates of the Caribbean Buccaneers at Tampa Bay

• Shanahan's Steakhouse Redskins at Washington

• Skyline Chili Bengals at Cincinnati

• Kansas City Barbecue Chiefs

• Buffalo Wild Wings Bills

• BALCO Raiders at Oakland (Even if the defunct doping lab set up operations on the other side of the Bay, the world's most notorious sports team deserves a most notorious sponsor)

• Wisconsin Cheese (Mart) Packers at Green Bay

• Cafe du Monde Beignet Saints of New Orleans (You try typing Cafe du Monde without getting a craving for beignets)

• Coca-Cola Falcons at Atlanta (It can't be the Home Depot Falcons, because team owner Arthur Blank would be taking from one hand to give to the other)

• The Trump Jets at New York

• Peyton Manning Colts of Indianapolis (When you think Indianapolis, you think Peyton Manning. Besides, Manning, who made $38 million in salary and endorsements last year and could be on the Colts' books for $54.4 million, should be eligible for corporate sponsorship by 2021)

This article was written by Mike Klis and appeared in The Denver Post.