Sports sponsorships have been one of the few consistent and relatively-safe places for corporations to direct advertising dollars during the economic turbulence of the past few years. After showing signs of contraction in the United States in 2009, sponsorship expenditures by North American companies suddenly grew 3.9 percent to $17.2 billion in 2010 and are anticipated to rise an additional 2 percent this year, according to research from IEG SR. One of the leading spenders in the market has been Bank of America, which garnered its latest headlines with the announcement of a $5 billion capital injection from Warren Buffett on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway.