What is the value of naming rights?

A few odd thoughts popped into my head when I heard that one of the venues inside the Time-Union Arena was getting a new name. In no particular order:

What's in a name? What is the actual return on investment from having a commercial name attached to a building, or part of one? Do enough people choose your product based on your name on a sports complex to increase your sales to the point where you can justify it as an advertizing expense? Or is it some mix of publicity and ego boost?

Naming rights on sections in a complex is newer. how far down the scale will it go? Will I next visit the Frank and Joe's Sunoco men's room, right next to the Slim-Fast ladies room? Or does a business have to buy a pair of restrooms and apply a single name to them, like Sam and Betty's Bar Personal Comfort Area? And do related businesses benefit more from name association than an unrelated business, like Nike being more effective than Nabisco on a sports complex? Perhaps the comfort stations would help a plumbing business more, or a paper products company? How about the Charmin Quilted Ladies Toilet? And if parts of an arena can have naming rights, how about areas within? Will I find the Pampers Changing Station inside one of these rest rooms?

What happened to the taxpayers name? The Times-Union Arena was originally the Knickerbocker Arena. Why didn't the naming rights get sold for the product or service preceding the name the taxpayer paid for, so that the name would be Sponsor Knickerbocker Arena and people would associate the sponsor and the building even more closely. It would be nice if the name contained some hint that we taxpayers paid for it.

Where does this trend end? The time is long past when we could count on common sense, good taste, public perception, or even basic human dignity to restrain the process of making money. Will we see naming rights sold to personal products companies, diseases, political parties, or religions? And will other public buildings sell naming rights? I have visions of the Trojan Condom Elementary School, or Prostate Cancer Woman's Shelter, and the price any of the legal firms who advertise on TV would pay for naming rights to the courthouse. I bet some people think I'm exaggerating, reread the second sentence of this paragraph. Funeral homes would buy naming rights on the morgue.