I am sick and tired of all the sports stadium names being bought by big companies that have absolutely nothing to do with sports except to be the advertisers. This selling out for dollars robs these places of their individual personalities. Dunkin' Donuts Arena? Verizon Center? Gillette Stadium? You tell me where these places are or what teams play there. They could be ANYWHERE. Compare and contrast with: Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium... these are NAMES! These bring up images and memories that go along with the sports teams. Can't you practically smell the hotdogs and beer? How commercialized does sports need to get.. how much money do they need to make?
Today Bank of America announced it was buying FleetBoston. Inevitably, this means the Fleet Center (home to the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins - not that you would know this if you didn't live in New England) will be renamed Bank of America center or some such shit. Bank of America - a company with NO roots in the New England area... sacrilege! Of course I never agreed with calling it the Fleet Center, either - the building they created next to the site of my favorite sports facility ever - the Boston Garden, where the Celtics teams that won 16 championships played, where Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Kevin McHale, Bill Russell, Cedric Maxwell* and Robert Parish played. Fleet didn't even pay to put their name on the new building. Another bank that they bought had paid and they just took over the sign. It is just plain wrong. The new building should have continued to be called the New Garden. I say we go back to calling it that. Boycott the name Bank of America Center. It's just not right!
* whose number is getting retired this year. Yeah Max!-----
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URL: http://www.bigpinkcookie.com
I still call Enron Field in Houston ... Enron Field. It's "Minute Maid Park" now, but we don't grow oranges in Houston - so why do we have Minute Maid Park? However, Enron will always mean Houston - so the name has changed, but I'm sticking with the old one! (Sometimes I call it the Astrodome just to keep people on their toes, even though that is a few miles away from the new ballpark!)
Posted by Christine | October 29, 2006 3:27 PM
Posted on October 29, 2006 15:27
URL: http://www.blogdaddy.com/
Rock on dude. How long until Fenway goes this route? ::shudder::
Posted by dave | October 29, 2006 3:27 PM
Posted on October 29, 2006 15:27