(Un)Necessary Evil

What's in a name, you say? What is going on with all the corporate sponsorships?! Everything has a company name on it now. It's only a matter of time before Joe Robbie Stadium and Wrigley Field fall prey to the corporate raiders.

Even as we speak, the Golden Gate Bridge is in danger of corporate interference. Okay, so we invite their investments to keep our costs down. Eventually it goes up. And forget about the concession stands. It's just like the movie theater. The ticket sales, just like the movie theatre box office proceeds, go to the team (box office goes to the film company). The stadium, like the theater, makes its money at the concession stand. The hot dogs and sodas are their bread and butter. (Wah. Wah. Wah.)

Unless you encounter a situation such as what we have here in San Francisco; namely PacBell Park. It's currently AT&T Park, even though it used to be SBC Park, I still call it PacBell Park. Why? Because it was PacBell that made the investment for construction. I'll be the first to admit they deserve to have their name on it. Not SBC. Or AT&T. Why? Because SBC bought PacBell, who were soon bought by AT&T. SBC and AT&T did not invest in it. But if you can't call it SBC or AT&T Park, what do you call it? PacBell no longer exists.

I even flipped out when my NASCAR Cup Series changed from Winston to Nextel. Of course, then I realized Winston was a sponsor as well. And a cigarette, no less. I guess I should be glad, since I'm a non-smoker. So, we have to sorta live with the name changes every two years. I can't even remember what Candlestick Park was called, in between 3COM and Monster. I remember it was a dot.com company. And they went out of business 6 months after. And their name was on every cup holder in the park. All 35,000. I still call it the Stick, though.

That's all you have to remember, folks. Take the corporate money, and call it whatever you want. That's what's important. Heyyyyy...batter batter batter batter batter, swing batter...he cannot, he cannot, he cannot, a' swing batter...