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.
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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).
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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.
