So, the Red Sox auctioned the rights to name the FleetCenter in Boston for one day:
Predictably, a Yankee fan won the auction. He could have chosen to name it “The Red Sox Suck” or “Manny Ramirez is an asshole”. He chose “Derek Jeter Center”. Tasteful, and somewhat amusing.
They aren’t letting him have his winning bid, as it was deemed “obscene and vulgar”. C’mon! Don’t do the promotion if you aren’t going to face the consequences. I think the guy showed remarkable class in picking a tasteful name for his winning bid. Let the guy have his way.
P.S. This is my first pit thread. I therefore used the word “asshole”.
I’d have kept it the Fleet Center, I just would have hung a hot water bottle from a crane in the parking lot, and ran a tube to the roof, and seen if anyone noticed.
Malicious intent? Oh, come now. This is really harmless. While Jeter is hated around these parts, it’s not like he played any leading role in the various Red Sox heartaches through the years. “The Bucky Dent Center” or “The Bill Buckner Arena”? Fine, I can see that that could be a bit much for some. But this is just being thin-skinned.
Waitaminute… isn’t a company who creates such a contest entering into a contractual relationship, albeit one with an unusual client? There’s undoubtedly a clause prohibiting obscenity, but naming it after a person isn’t that.
I’d love to get my hands on their full rules for it. And it might mean that the winner has a potential lawsuit. It is* a potential false advertising kick.
“We decided that all the names had to be rated G, and this name was determined to be obscene and vulgar,” said Richard A. Krezwick.
It looks like they somehow determined “Derek Jeter” to be obscene.
I’m sure they had something in the contract that said they could reject any name for any reason. It just seems lame that they had no sense of humor about it.
I thought they beat Derek Jeter and the Yankees. Why have hard feelings about it now? Fer petes sake. You just won the world series. Try to have a sense of humor.
I dunno, it seems they have a pretty good sense of humor about. I doubt the crack about the name Derek Jeter being obscene came out of any sort of real sense of offense.
The guy who did it thinks the whole thing is funny, too. From ESPN:
The guy’s old college roommate donated an additional $6,275 and the building will be named the Jimmy Fund Center for the day.
Yeah, everything works out nicely. But, it seems, this guy won the auction as a good-hearted joke with his Red Sox buddies. As a Yankee fan, he has the right to name an arena in Boston for the day. 99% of Yankee fans (or Boston fans if the situation were reversed) would have probably done something genuinely obscene ala “Manny Ramirez is a goat fellater”, and I would expect them to reject it. But, this guy did something very lighthearted. No one is going to riot in the streets or get their panties in a twist. In fact, it would probably be a nice little blip in a rivalry. Let him have it.
Sure, my feeling is to let him have it, too. I think it would be hilarious. But I can respect the Fleet Center’s concern, too. From the article I linked to, the Fleet Center basically said that they expected the name would result in a deluge of phone calls and e-mails protesting that they weren’t set up to handle in addition to legitimate business calls. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable cause for concern on their part, y’know?
The articles have implied that there’s a series of these “name the Fleet Center for a day” auctions. I wonder if anyone’s won and decided to call it “the Boston Garden.”
Sure, you can bid for it on eBay. The back story is that the building was originally named Shawmut Center, after a bank that was shortly thereafter bought by Fleet Bank. The naming contract allowed 1 free name change, and it was used then. When Fleet got bought by Bank of America, they were unable to reach agreement on buyout terms, and the building is now looking for a new sponsor. Meanwhile, the name, for one day at a time, was on auction at eBay as a gimmick, getting as much as $10K/day.
I don’t really object to this one. You do know his full name, right? Just use it: Derek Sanderson Jeter. Yep, you got it. If the guy played here, he’d be a god. What’s the problem with naming the Bruins’ building after one of their most popular players from their glory years? Except that the Bruins don’t play there at the moment, that is. Maybe they can use the name for a rock concert or wrestling show.
