(FORTUNE Magazine) – A familiar sight from Little League baseball is coming to professional sports. Three of the seven teams in the World Basketball League, an NBA rival now in its third season, have corporate sponsors that slap their logos on the players' uniforms. But instead of the small-town pizzerias and gas stations that underwrite Little League teams, WBL sponsors are global corporations. Anheuser-Busch's Eagle Snacks division sponsors the Illinois Express in Springfield; Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., the Memphis Rockers; and Good Humor, a division of Unilever, the Erie (Pennsylvania) Wave. WBL commissioner Steve Ehrhart is looking for sponsors for the other teams: the Las Vegas Silver Streaks and the Youngstown (Ohio) Pride in the U.S., the Calgary 88s and Saskatchewan Storm in Canada. Cost: $250,000, minimum. Each team's budget is about $750,000, less than the average pay of a single NBA player. In addition to getting its logo on the uniforms, a sponsor receives print ads in the league's programs, banners in the arenas, and commercial time when games are broadcast on local radio stations and national cable TV. Says Ehrhart, a veteran of the defunct U.S. Football League: ''The companies are pleased they're getting such a bang for their bucks.'' Sometimes the sponsors get an extra bang: A few games take place abroad against local teams there, giving advertisers international exposure. Such matches are made competitive by an unusual restriction for pro hoopsters: The WBL has a 6-foot 5-inch height limit for its players. Once he gets the league out of the red -- ''We're close,'' he says -- Ehrhart wants to start divisions in Europe and the Pacific Rim. - M.A.