sports am I right

We all know the companies that sponsor athletic leagues: Gatorade, Adidas, Budweiser… Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor?

If you’re in Dodge often (pat yourself on the back) you know exactly what you see on the wall as soon as you walk in: a giant poster proclaiming Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor as the sponsor of Columbia University Athletics. Now, why would Arts and Crafts, renowned for its benches guaranteed to make your butt sore, jaded grad students, and expensive but classy craft beers, be the official sponsor of CU Athletics? I know The Heights (Dine above it all!) and Mel’s also number among Columbia’s sponsors, but it’s Arts and Crafts who paid for an oversized poster in its 2000s-style D&D font in the Dodge hallway with the most undergrad and underage foot traffic? Who works there and decided to blow their whole marketing budget on this?

I think the population of Dodge-going students has become blind to this nonsensical mismatch that is the Arts and Crafts sponsorship banner (it also advertises their Sunday trivia nights). If Arts and Crafts is the CU Athletics sponsors, why isn’t Modest Mouse performing at a Homecoming half-time show? The TV in JJ’s should be running a SuperBowl-style ad that features shots of post-doc students crying into their IPAs. Why is the football team comprised of Sig Chi brothers and not the TAs from your Intro to Anthropology class? Why isn’t A&C selling its underrated and little-known Bar Bites at football games, such as the arugula and cranberry salad, or a Brooklyn Hot Dog Company dog? I know why — because it makes absolutely no sense that Arts and Crafts is the sponsor of Columbia University Athletics. 1020 though? That’s a promising partnership.

Photo via Columbia Athletics