Some of the world's biggest automotive badges are affixed to marketing vehicles — professional sports stadiums in particular.

Thanks to sponsorship deals that cost millions of dollars a year, pro football palaces in Detroit, Nashville and Atlanta bear the names of hometown auto brands Ford, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz, respectively. (The Mercedes star also graces the roof of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.)

And long before Toyota replanted its headquarters near Dallas, it plowed its marketing dollars into naming rights for Houston's basketball arena, built in 2003. It recently relinquished rights at a troubled pro soccer field in suburban Chicago.

Rival Honda, which stayed in Southern California, adopted the home pond of hockey's Anaheim Ducks in 2006.