Rick Morrissey wrote an article about owner Sam Zell selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field. Being the purist he is, Morrissey is in an uproar. Here are some funny quotes, at least to me.
"The joke will be on the corporate rube who believes that, by acquiring naming rights to the ballpark, he's buying high-quality advertising. What he will buy is a shunning of Amish proportions. If I know one thing, it's that few people will pay any attention to a name change in the way a company would like."
-Actually douche, they would be buying high-quality advertising. You see Wrigley field is a high traffic stadium. If you get a lot of eyeballs looking at one thing, that's a good thing. Plus ESPN and Fox broadcast a lot of nationally televised games. Quite often they show the stadium name, so even if people won't call it that, it'll be in huge letters outside the stadium for many people to see.
"Subtlety is this: The marquee would stay exactly the same. In other places around the park, WRIGLEY FIELD would be in big letters and something like "at Budweiser Park" in fine print. You'll know it's there, but you won't feel beholden to it."
-Subtlety this Rick, these companies don't give a shit. They want their name everywhere in Big bold lettering. Isn't Wrigley a company?
A dumb corporation will believe fans eventually will come around to a name change. My money is on a dumb corporation buying naming rights.
-I'm not an expert in advertising, but I do know it's quite difficult to put a value on how well a certain ad campaign unless it's click throughs on the internet and even that is tricky. When corporations get really big, their main goal is for people to be aware they exist. Something tells me with how much these naming rights are being sold for around the MLB, NBA, and NHL, it must be a pretty sweet deal. Don't you hate it when an employee thinks corporations are dumb, as if he can do better if he was the CEO. If it's so easy douche do it yourself.
"And company officials know fans won't stop calling it Wrigley, so what would be the point of shelling out money? A company spokesman declined to comment Thursday."
-Eyeballs, the product is it's own entity, I don't think AT&T park really cares if people call it AT&T park. If you're going to the game you'll see a big ass sign to tell you of their product and that's all they want.
I don't care for the selling the naming rights either, but it's a business. Sam Zell paid good money for the Tribune, let him get it back in whatever way he wants.
