The time we knew would eventually come has arrived. Jacobs Field is officially Progressive Field. It has now gone from the ranks of the mellifluous alongside Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Camden Yards to the corporate sellout with ridiculous sounding names such as Petco Park, AT&T Park, and U.S. Cellular Field. It is appropriate that the field formerly known as Jacobs is literally next door to the horrifically named Quicken Loans Arena..
Once upon a time we didn't face advertising everywhere we went. Now it is ubiquitous, inundating us everywhere from every form of media (except NPR and PBS I'm happy to say) to ugly billboards, stadiums, movie theaters, and even urinals!
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It is probably a matter of time before uniforms
look like soccer jerseys, where the team name is much smaller than the main corporate sponsor's, or worse yet, NASCAR, where they are literally walking billboards. (The jersey to the right, is that of the team I support, Liverpool, even though you can only see the ad for Carlsberg beer).
look like soccer jerseys, where the team name is much smaller than the main corporate sponsor's, or worse yet, NASCAR, where they are literally walking billboards. (The jersey to the right, is that of the team I support, Liverpool, even though you can only see the ad for Carlsberg beer)..
How much before the Green Monster in Boston starts to look like what the outfield walls in Jacobs, er, Progressive Field look like? Maybe we should consider other venues: The McDonald's Statue of Liberty, The Preparation-H Grand Canyon, The Oral-B White (ner) House, Starbucks Central Park...
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Is there no respite?
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I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, but it does. It's just so crass, opportunistic, and in your face. Why does everything have to be commercial? Are we nothing more than consumers? I think this is emblematic of our materialistic, often superficial society.
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A sad day, indeed.
I hate to tell you this, but the Green Monster used to have ads on it, well before the utter commercialization of the world.
ReplyDeleteLast I checked, it wasn't plastered with ads. It is actually mostly green! Cleveland's outfield walls are, well... wall to wall with adds.
ReplyDeleteIn my perfect world all sports stadiums would be named after some corporation, and no tax dollars would go to subsidize the pockets of team owners. That's the true crime. At least the corporations are giving their money to pay for something they want.
ReplyDeleteThat's a false choice. Tax dollars and corporate sponsorship and not mutually exclusive. On the tax front, I agree, billionaires should not be feeding at the public trough; it's a complete manipulation and exploitation of a system which was never meant to make the rich, richer.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at the bright side of things.
ReplyDelete1. It is named for a reasonably local business.
2. It is a business that will presumably stay around and thus have some permanence, rather than a revolving door of revolting names.
3. It is a name that is a real word, rather than a blatantly obvious corporate name (Bank One Ballpark, Safeco Field, Halliburton House (Formerly the Vice Presidential Mansion).
4. It gives us some liberty to nickname it. The Prog (where we watch Pronk), the P (letting us not mind our P's and Q's), the PF (like all of the cool kids who refer to the OC).
5. Wearing your Jacobs Field 10th Man Society Hat is now actually subversive and cool.
6. Making jokes about Pedro Cerrano, played by Allstate Pitchman, Dennis Haysbert is all but assured.
7. We are still free to call it whatever we want, so I may stubbornly refer to it as Jacobs Field (out of respect), the Doby Dome (sure it's not a dome, but since it hasn't been renamed in honor of Larry Doby, I don't see a problem with it), Feller Field, Minor League Park (a fitting tribute to all of the not-ready-for-prime-time players who have and will take the field at some point due to Scrooge McDolan's ownership).
Things to worry about:
1. Delays of game while waiting for the claims adjuster following a collision at the plate.
2. Slider reinjures his knee in an onfield brawl with the AFLAC duck
3. If there is remodeling done, fear the Frank Gehry-designed urinals.
The dollars that go from Progressive to the Indians are coming from the people who can least afford to part with those dollars.
ReplyDeleteI have many, many comments on selling naming rights, but I'll limit myself:
ReplyDelete- You missed the annual plethora of college bowl games that are now virtually unrecognizable from the days of yore. Gone are the simply named Peach, Cotton, Rose, and Orange Bowls; now company names dominate the logos and TV listings (full list at http://tinyurl.com/323jl5).
- Corporate naming goes way back--ever hear of Wrigley Field? But the ridiculousness of the current corporate identifiers goes well beyond the name of a wealthy family--TD Banknorth Garden?
- Sometimes the corporate names aren't so bad. Take the United Center, Frontier Field, or (nod to Ohio) Great American Ballpark--the corporate names actually sound pretty good on those fields. But I'm sorry, Pringles Park, Staples Center, and Bright House Networks Stadium? Not happening. (Check out the full list: http://tinyurl.com/257eg7)
- The jury is still out on Monster Park. I actually think the name is funny (corporate ties aside), but I miss the quaintness of Candlestick Park.
Thanks for letting me rant on this topic. - Christine
Uncle Jerry - your argument seems liberal to me. You're not going soft on me are you?
ReplyDeleteChristine - many good points. I agree that the bowl names are out of control, too, and that some of the corporate names are decent. Thanks for the input!
Brian
Hey Brian - first congrats on the engagement (yeah, I know wrong comment area).
ReplyDeleteSo you're saying Jacobs Field wasn't commercialized? Didn't Dick Jacobs pay a hell of a lot of money to put his name on the stadium? Should he instead have named it Mall Ball(park) since Jacobs owns so many malls?
But now I can say (or will say) I've seen the Indians play at 3 ballparks in Cleveland!
And haven't you seen video from the 1950's & 60's of baseball parks across the country with giant advertisements on the outfield walls?
James
Thanks for the congratulations. As far as ballparks go, I would say that naming one after a company is crass commericialism. Naming it after yourself is just egotistical. At least they're not trying to sell you something. I agree that advertising has always been around but it just seems more invasive and pervasive than ever before and it's getting worse. Can't we have some places where we're not inundated with commercial messages? Maybe it's too late for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going soft. Nor are you.
ReplyDeletePrgressive pays millions to have their name on stuff. The Indians use that money to put better players on the field. Better product is good.
That's capitalism.