Corporate vandalism

The BBQ Pit
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(I almost posted this in GD, since I have genuine questions about corporate responsibility, and because I think I’ve ranted about this very subject before. Still, it sounded more Pit-like than GD-like.)

I went to a wonderful show Sunday night by the Trey Anastasio Band at…Verizon Wireless Music Center.

This venue, one of my favorite in the country, was formerly known as Deer Creek Music Center. It was Deer Creek when I camped in the vicinity last summer for four nights to see Bob Dylan/Phil Lesh and three Phish shows. It was Deer Creek when I saw the second and third of my many Phish shows back in '97. It’s a beautiful venue with great sound in a wonderful rural setting, until now reflected in the name.

Why would Verizon Wireless do this? I guess it gets the name out a bit more, in case there are three senior citizens on a farm in Noblesville who were not aware that a company named Verizon offers telecommunications solutions. However, most of the people I know who hear of this sort of thing are appalled, and if anything think less of Verizon Wireless than they did before. The effect on the bottom line has to be negligible.

So why do they do it? I think they do it for the same reason people spray-paint their names on bridges–because they can. They want to assert to us that they, as a corporation, are bigger than our cherished institutions. They are more powerful than Deer Creek, than the Knickerbocker Arena, than Candlestick Park.

Couldn’t they at least have left a bit of the name intact–Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Deer Creek? Couldn’t they have used something that rolled off the tongue a bit better than “Verizon Wireless Music Center”? Does vanity know no bounds?

(Oh, and don’t get me started on SFX, owner of this venue and, near as I can tell, every other music venue in the free world. They are the worst thing to happen to live music since the Hell’s Angels did security at Altamont.)

If and when I finally get a cell phone, I will purposely steer clear of Verizon Wireless, and I will let the company know exactly why I did so. (They won’t care, but I’ll feel better.) In the meantime, I have to agree with the sign a guy was carrying around the parking lot at the Trey show–“It’s still Deer Creek to me.”

Dr. J

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At least you have a recognizable name on your venue. (Or maybe that’s a bad thing.)

After years of living with the comfortable and cozy Orlando O-rena, we have had the monstrous T. D. Waterhouse Centre foisted off on us for the next few years by the city and the DeVos family. Waterhouse has no presence in the community (no offices or ‘good deeds’ scholarships or other sponsorships), and their stock has dropped significantly, from what I’ve been told. When we heard the news they were naming the building that, it was basically, “Who/what the “f” is T.D. Waterhouse?”

We’ll see what happens after the next renovation in about a year or so.

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But there is no longer a Candlestick Park, it has been moved and is now Pac Bell Park.

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In Little Rock we have the Alltel Arena. Wireless technology knows no bounds for it’s evil!

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True; it still remains one of the more egregious examples of replacing a cool, widely-recognized name with soulless corporate moniker. (3Com Park? Please.)

PacBell Park doesn’t bother me so much, since it’s a new venue and didn’t have another name before. Plus, PacBell Park rolls off the tongue a little better than most.

Dr. J

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I’m sure that most of the Houston area 'Dopers will agree with me when I say ITS THE SUMMIT! THE SUMMIT! THE SUMMIT!

I don’t give a fat rats ass how much money Compaq has, how many jobs its created, or anything else. The Summit will always be the Summit, not the ‘Compaq Center’ and Compaq will NEVER be able to change that in my mind.

And if anyone tries to change the Astrodome to something else, I’m taking a hostage.

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Candlestick still physically exists and is now “3Com Park at Candlestick Point”, a name which does not exactly roll of the tongue. Pac Bell park is the new home of the Giants. As of this writing the 49ers still play at Candlestick, err, 3Com, though they are trying to swing a new stadium. Most people seem to think Pac Bell is a great stadium, and at least it’s named “Pac Bell” at the outset, so the corporate sponsor isn’t “stealing” an old name.

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My poor baseball team, the (California) Angels just can’t win, on the field or off of it.

A few years back, the new owners (Disney) decided to change the name of the ballpark from Anaheim Stadium to something more catchy, or whatever. The “Big A”, so-called because of the giant “A” built in the parking lot, had some nostalgia, if for no other reason than “it was always that way.”

In an absolute clusterfuck-to-be, they sold the naming rights to Edison International, our beloved power company. Now, our yard is the “Edison International Field of Anaheim” or as we like to call it, the “Big Ed.”

The joke is that everyone in SoCal hates Edison with a passion, due to our little power snafu.

Not only that, but I think it only costs Edison about $1 million per year, which seems low. Of course, Edison doesn’t have a lot of spare change at the moment, allegedly.

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If anybody is interseted, naming rights to the football stadium in Baltimore (home of the World Champion Baltimore Ravens!!!) are up for sale. Seems that PSI Net is “fiscally challenged” (read: went tits up) and filed chapter 11,13,26,73 and whatever else. You, YES YOU, can purchase naming rights to the stadium.

I can see it now… Spritle Stadium!

In more disgusting news, the University of Maryland sold naming rights to the basketball field house. :ugh:

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Or you could be like the Redskins, playing at FedEx field and have all sorts of jokes made about your ability to actually deliver.

Still, FedEx Field has a better ring to it than ‘Raljon’.

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Corporate vandalism? Equivalent to graffiti?

Absolutely not! Not even close!

It’s not vandalism it’s advertising. It’s not graffiti it’s the equivalent of putting up a billboard.

Because the owners of the property offered to name the property after the corporate entity in exchange for a sum of money. For that fee the corporate entity gets it’s name mentioned every time the property is in the news, events on the property are advertised, and you tell your friends where you went. Essentially it is a whole lot of name dropping for relatively little money.

Whose fault is it? Not the corporate entities, they are only taking advantage of what is being offered. It’s the greedy property owners fault for offering the deal.

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I heard an ugly rumor a couple of years ago that “they” were shopping the idea of selling the naming rights to Soldier Field in Chicago…

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Well, here in Michigan, we now have DTE Energy Music Theatre instead of good ol’ Pine Knob, where I’ll be seeing Yes in August.

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Well, I’m just glad that such storied sports team owners as William Wrigley or Augustus Busch would never have stooped to such crass commercialism to help sell chewing gum or beer or anything.

Oops.

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Ohh, if only I had the money. “Welcome to Speculative Bubble Stadium, where the Ravens…” “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming to Tulip Bulb Arena…”

Did they sell it to KFC? 'Cuz then they could call it KFC Cole Slaw Field House.

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But those names work. And I can’t quite explain why. And part of the reason, I’m sure, is because to me they’ve always been that way. But there’s something else to it too. I remember feeling incredibly stupid the day the lightbulb went on and I realized “‘Coors Field,’ like in the beer - duh.” There’s a feeling of rightness about the name that there simply isn’t with “Verizon Wireless Music Center” or “3Com Park” or “Safeco Field”

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Another part of the reason may be that “Busch” and “Wrigley” are family names, while “Verizon” is a name created by committee and voted on by focus groups. I mean, the “Tampax Cardiac Centre” just doesn’t have the same cachet as the “Peter Munk Cardiac Centre”.

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How about if Tampax bought the rights to the name of a baseball park, it would give new meaning to “hitting for the cycle”.

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Once upon a time in Raleigh NC, we had the Walnut Creek Amphitheater.

This facility begat the Hardee’s Walnut Creek Pavilion, which begat the Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek.

It just keeps going downhill…

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PNC Park. First, corporate welfare builds the fucking thing we don’t even NEED, and a corporation gets to name it. Fuck.