It won’t be over until all pro teams have ads on their uniforms like the cars in NASCAR.
Well, you can borrow a “center” from the Worcester Centrum Centre. :dubious:
Anyway, you are Munchkins!
Euty represents the Lollipop Guild! The Lollipop Guild…
There is – or was, I’m not sure – a field in the Philadelphia area sponsored by First Union Bank. Of course, it quickly became the F.U. stadium.
Petco Park is feminine sounding? I vote for just plain stupid sounding.
Busch Staidium isn’t too bad. Busch is a product, but also a family name. Edison Field was OK. (I do like it that the current owner of the Angels will not sell the naming rights)
It’s like this.
Wrigley Field = OK
Dentyne Field or Juicy Fruit Field = Not OK
The Nokia Sugar Bowl is far prferable to the Tostito’s Feista Bowl.
Nationwide Arena is preferable to Network Associates Coliseum.
The Fleet Center is better than the General Motors Palace.
In the grand, I guess it doesn’t make much difference. But some names are cooler than others. I guess it boils down to whether or not you can hear the name and not *immediately * think of a product. I agree that is totally subjective measure, though.
Here is a list of stadium names.
As I’ve said before, the people filing into Qualcomm Stadium and SBC Park and all of the other sports venues named after faceless communications and/or technology corporations ought to feel pretty lucky. Those corporations really don’t connect with the public imagination and, as such, their names quickly lose any meaning whatsoever except as a string of syllables that you use to identify the venue. But corporations like Taco Bell … you really can’t help but think of goddamn chimichangas every time the name comes up.
Man, I’m gonna lose sleep over that!
Silly me. I was so proud of the name chosen for our new Reds stadium, Great American Ballpark. I thought it was a reverential nod to “America’s favorite past-time,” not some damn insurance company! :mad:
I’m so disillusioned. 
Speaking of which, isn’t Target Center a bit redundant or at least blatantly obvious? :smack:
I thought that too.
I feel sorry for Nashville. I mean, anything is better than the “Gaylord Entertainment Center.” Sounds like the place where Liberace has his TV and stereo…
Man, look at that list. Everyone is getting millions of dollars for naming rights, and what do the Ravens do? They sell the naming rights to M&T Bank for five frickin’ dollars! I’d have given them at least $10 to name it Weirddave Park!
Northern New York is home to Lake Placid, not far from where I live, where the 1932 and 1980 Olympics were held.
Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the site of the '32 and '80 track has been renamed “Verizon Hill”. Not far from the hill is a line of flags, about 20 or so, with NY’s state flag and the U.S. flag in the middle. At the same height going about 10 in either direction is a bunch of black flags with the Verizon logo.
Sad.
I feel for ya, dwc1970. A few years back, the moneybags at McDonalds were able to convince Georgia Tech to paint the Golden Arches on the floor of the basketball court. Initially the arches were so big that folks complained… enough that they were considerably smaller the next year.
Even funnier is that Tech wanted to rename something in the stadium to honor “legendary” :rolleyes: coach Bobby Cremins… So the official name of the place where Georgia Tech plays basketball is:
Cremins Court at Alexander Memorial Coliseum at McDonalds Center
where “Cremins Court” is the name of the actual floor, “Alexander Memorial Coliseum” is the name the coliseum had for years and years and “McDonalds Center” is the name of the entire complex… including, errr… the parking lots, I guess.
Somehow, I liked it better when it was just “The Thrillerdome”
Everyone bitches about these corporate sponsorships. But the only way to stop them is to stop patronizing the companies doing the sponsoring and, most especially, the venues that they’ve bought. But since people seem bound and determined that it’s reasonable to drop big bucks to go watch people play games, the sponsorships continue unabated.
Talk is cheap. Action brings results. You don’t want action, you want something easy to bitch about. It’s a snoozer, at this point, and has been since the first time this came up, more than a decade ago.
I am a student at the University of Idaho, which is home to the Kibbie Dome. I would gladly let them rename it the Gold Bond Medicated Powder Dome if it meant that they wouldn’t keep threatening to cut the arts program in order to funnel more money into athletics.
Count your blessings, dude.
We’d of got ourselves in a bidding war. I’d go at least $50 to get it named The Spooje Bowl!
Heh. I recently read an article about a wedding that was SPONSORED by large companies - the bride and groom did it to get their wedding paid for.
Not sure I’d care to go down the aisle sporting a large “Nike” across my bodice, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
(Not sure where the article is - I saw it on a wedding board. If I happen to come across it again later, I’ll post it.)
Ava
Well, I agree with you in theory. But how is any “boycott” gonna be sustainable or make enough of a dent in their bottom line for the corporations to care?
I’m sure McDonalds would be able to tell in less than a week if the entire metro Atlanta area stopped eating at its restaurants, but Georgia Tech fans aren’t the entire Atlanta population. Since half the state of Ohio now lives in metro Atlanta, any random stranger you meet is as likely to like Ohio State as Georgia Tech or UGA. And Boise State? Would Taco Bell even notice if they had to close their Boise stores?
And while most people I know find the practice of naming stadiums after corproate entities distasteful, it’s usually not enough to get them to take a day off work to protest. Naming a children’s puppetry theatre the “John Wayne Gacy Center for Puppetry Arts”? Yeah, you could get protestors for that. But for the “Yahoo! Center for Puppetry Arts”, no.
See, I like that idea if it were applied to politicians. I think Congressmen and Senators should have to stitch onto their suits the logos of the corporations and unions which finance them. 
My theory of action regarding on renaming stadiums, etc. by the highest corporate bidder is that, if members of the public continue to call it by the original name, it doesn’t matter one iota what the new “official” name of the stadium is. Just because the owners of the stadium sold the naming rights to make themselves a few million, doesn’t mean that you, as a private citizen, have to refer to it by the new name–especially if this approach is taken en masse!!