What's My Name?

There was a sports story this week that was drowned out by the Rafael Palmeiro story (see pervious post for my view). A problem that is almost as devastating to sports as steroids, if not worse. This problem is the renaming of stadiums/arenas. For years I could laugh at sports fans in other cities that had to go to places like Petco Park, Heinz Field, McAfee Coliseum, Safeco Field, 3Com Park just to name a few of the lamer ones. But here in Cleveland, we haven’t sold out to the highest bidders because our owners were such egomaniacs that they named the stadiums after themselves; Gund Arena, Jacobs Field, and Browns Stadium. Now Dan Gilbert, the new owner of the Cavs has gone and ruined it renaming the Gund to Quicken Loans Arena. Already trying to diffuse the backlash, they already have a marketing scheme to nickname it the “Q.” Quicken Loans, The Q, I don’t care, I’m boycotting it. I’ll much sooner travel up to the Palace at Auburn Hill before stepping one foot in The “Q.”

I have no idea why owners sell their souls to give naming rights to a company. First of all, we, the consumer, do not get the discount on the ticket prices, if anything, ticket prices have gone way up since the renaming boom of the 90’s. And it doesn’t seem very good investment for the companies either. It may seem like a good marketing move, but does anyone know what Qualcomm, Safeco, or Comerica do? No one knew what Enron did because they named the Astros’ ballpark. People only became aware that it was an energy firm until it ruined its employees’ lives. And the Astros might as well kept the Enron moniker because what they replaced it with is the silliest of all the names, Minute Maid Park. Do people in Houston say, “Hey, wanna go to the Maid tonight?” Is the divorce rate in Houston gone up because husbands have spent too much time with the Maid?

Going back to Cleveland, Gilbert should have done is stick with the city’s tradition and renamed it the Gilbert Arena. How funny would that be? (For those who don’t follow the NBA, there is a player named Gilbert Arenas.)