Is this a sporting event, or a live infomercial?

Inside sports business

Fans attending the Sounders’ crucial season finale Sunday could be forgiven for thinking the home side’s players had become walking billboards for a video game company.

In fact, that was exactly the team’s intent behind having players don special Gears of War 4 jerseys while transforming CenturyLink Field into a giant theme park extolling the Xbox video game’s virtues. If you think that sounds crass and untraditional for a sports team, it’s probably just your age showing.

Nowadays, such “brand activation’’ marketing is becoming the norm for global companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. In a media landscape increasingly cluttered by content, brand activation brings a…