PB-J Time

December 19th, 2013 at 2:01 PM ^

I know you meant this in jest but this is actually fairly analogous.

This does look to be a new low as far as money grab. Name an iconic arena with an iconic team after a guy who throws $ at you? Poor

It's not like this is the PSU hockey team where the guy gave $ so the program could start...IU basketball is quite established already.

Joined: 09/06/2012

MGoPoints: 3469

TheJoker

December 19th, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^

To be honest all these namings are quite useless.

This name is just ceremonial more than anything else. No one is actually going to call it Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The announcers will make a passing reference to it once in a while but it'll go back to being Assembly Hall soon enough. 

Joined: 09/01/2011

MGoPoints: 1488

MI Expat NY

December 19th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^

I don't know if I'd call this a new low.  It still has Assembly Hall attached, and that'll still be its common name.  I think the corporate renaming of stadiums is worse.  And it isn't as low as say, renaming Kinnick after a big donor.  I mean, the name itself isn't special.  It's not even unique.  

Joined: 07/24/2008

MGoPoints: 8641

PB-J Time

December 19th, 2013 at 2:00 PM ^

This reminds me of the movie idocracy (not great movie, but fantastic social satire) where everything is a corporate sponser.

I can just imagine IU's coach coming out: Mr. Costco McDonald's!!!

Joined: 09/06/2012

MGoPoints: 3469

Key Play

December 19th, 2013 at 2:19 PM ^

Does this mean the B1G went from two Assembly Halls to 0? Illinois just renamed their arena to the "State Farm Center". Is that worse or better than this? 

Joined: 10/24/2013

MGoPoints: 68

oriental andrew

December 19th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^

I get the illini fighting i-mail (athletics email list) and they an email a couple months ago about watching volleyball at the State Farm Center.  I was like, "Awesome, are they playing in Chicago?"  Looked it up, only to find that it's just the new name for the old Assembly Hall.  

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 55940

VAGenius

December 19th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^

If you see what they're paying for naming rights on stadiums, what would they pay for naming rights on the actual school itself?

"ACME Brand's University of <insert state here>" 

or

"University of <insert state>, brought to you by ACME Brand"

Joined: 10/26/2009

MGoPoints: 926

The Dirty Nil

December 19th, 2013 at 3:10 PM ^

The whole corporate sponsorship thing really annoys me when it's like, "the starting lineup is brought to us by (insert company name)". Or during a football game, when a team makes it in the red zone, and they show some red zone efficiency stats, it's "brought to us by _____". Changing a stadium name to someone who donates/donated a substantial amount of money to the institution the stadium belongs to bothers me much less.

Joined: 05/13/2012

MGoPoints: 6222

03 Blue 07

December 19th, 2013 at 3:29 PM ^

Yet you're named after the most annoying jewelry chain ever. Hmm. God I hate those commercials. I picture Jared from the Subway commercials, as some annoying salesman at a jewelry store in a mall. 

If I were you, I'd go all "I'm not the one that sucks, Jared the Jeweler sucks, they should change THEIR name, man," which, to be honest, if I were named, say, Michael Bolton (like in Office Space), I'd definitely advocate that position strongly. 

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 3427

buckeyekiller1

December 19th, 2013 at 5:29 PM ^

As an IU alumnus and a huge IU bball fan for life, this pisses me off. It's a great deal of money and the Hall could certainly use some upgrades but not at the price of renaming it. I'm grateful for the money, but name a practice center (i.e. the Mellencamp pavilion) after her or something, not an iconic building like Assembly Hall. Some people are joking but I really hope DB never does this to the Big House. I would hate for my football team to do this shit just like my bball team. I hate the corporatization (yes I know that's not a real word) of college athletics.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 2939

I dumped the Dope

December 19th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^

That a triple digit million over trumps (in the case of M Stadium) almost a hundred years of tradition forevermore.  I don't know the build date on Assembly Hall but its wrong.  Get a corp sponsor to build your stadium, OK, put their name on it.  But a stadium paid for by bonds from the people should be immune.  Does anyone know if these are legally binding contracts or is it just something that's done out of respect for the gift as a gentleman's agreement?  The reason I bring this up is say someone showed up 100 years from now sporting 100x the cash and decided to try to buy out Skojdt's name.  Would their fragmented relative base still have the financial resources to fight that in court?  Or would the U simply use their burgeoning wealth to simply overtrump it with endless discovery and appeals?  I'm sorry it seems like I speak in stream-of-consciousness with no paragraph breaks but its a hated feature of Windows 8.  In time you will get to hate it as well.

Joined: 09/22/2013

MGoPoints: 2342

Blue Bennie

December 20th, 2013 at 8:22 AM ^

Meanwhile, the city of Indianapolis is giving the Pacers (owned by her family) $21 million next year: $11 for improvements to the field house (which the Pacers lease from the city) and $10 million to help with operation costs.

Yay! Free money for everyone!

Joined: 03/02/2009

MGoPoints: 296

BlueinOK

December 20th, 2013 at 1:20 PM ^

When I have a child, I'm going to approach every business around to see if they want to buy his/her's naming rights. Wait, I bet Dave Brandon already did that...

Joined: 12/06/2009

MGoPoints: 15029