OT: U of ILL to Rename Assembly Hall
I know,, who cares, but I thought it was interesting that they sold out to State Farm Insurance. As a policy holder, this bugs me a bit. Bloomington IL, corporate headquarters of State Farm, is about 52 miles northwest of Champaign. What I found even more interesting is that the renovations include adding A/C to the State Farm Center (aka Assembly Hall). I guess there will be no more confusion between U of I and IU, when it comes to basketball venues. Now, our "biggest rival" will have a nicer facility in which UM can play well and win a lot (hopefully). You may now return to DG's Tweets.
You're a couple weeks late. Also, for $2M a year, I bet the exposure is greater than what they pay for commercials.
Side note, if you wanted your insurance company to use you money wisely, you'd belong to a insurance co-op, not a for profit. It's like banking at a credit union vs JPM Chase.
Couple of weeks late? Really? Sorry, that article was dated yesterday. Hmmm. I do not know of any insurnace co-ops, nor have I heard of them before you posted that. I will have to consult the Googles. Many thanks for enlightening me. =)
I think there was a gap in time between when the news was first released (weeks ago) and when the trustees finally formally approved it (this week). You're good
State Farm is a mutual association, so if you're a policyholder, you're a part owner of those naming rights and all those TV ad decisions in a sense... Been a long time since the darn association has paid out any dividends, though (hmmm, coincidence??)
This isn't technically OT. But anyways, it sucks when (somewhat) iconic sports facilities give up their name/identity for a few bucks. I continue to hold out hope that we will never ever go that route.
By the way, congrats on hitting 1000 pts.
with you but the "Domino's Big House" just sounds like marketing gold, with a lot of pop and even great football.
I prefer the "Big Boy Big House."
Thank you knid sir, it's been a struggle to get this far.......=D
As soon as I post about another 17 or so pointless rambling, I'll be joining you in the Four Digit Club.
I believe there's like 15 football stadiums named after corporate sponsors, and probably the same (percentage wise, atleast) for basketball arenas. And a good portion of those have been over the past 5 years or so. It definitely is growing, albeit at a slow pace.
There's VCA, that's one for sure in the B1G.
Is "Kohl" named after a person, or a company?
A person, but he's also the former CEO of the company.
He hasn't had anything to do with the company in almost 35 years and the company had nothing to do with the funding of the building.
If that's true, that's a pretty sweet deal for Kohl's - they basically get free advertising whenever the building is mentioned.
Taco Bell Field: Where the runs aren't just on the diamond!
Yum Brands is HQ'd in Louisville and owns Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut so you are not far off. They used to be owned by Frito Lay, think of the names they could have used. btw whatever happened to the Frito Bandito? I loved the pre PC days!
I guess Frito Lay blew their stadium-naming wad on the park at the Braves' spring training complex. It used to be the Cracker Jack Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in the Walt Disney World Resort. Which I wish was a joke but isn't.
It's also sobering to learn that a rookie-league stadium has luxury boxes.
Hanes now has the rights. Why Victoria's Secret hasn't gotten into this game, I have no idea.
And why hasn't Ball Park Franks bought the naming rights to a ballpark?
I've heard from friends still at U of I some discontent since they recently voted to help fund the renovations wthout knowing the name would be changed.
I wonder if this is akin to DB raising student ticket prices for football
This GIF is now officially abused and overused. This GIF should be reserved for J'Real-Commitment level, you know, maybe one step below Kate-Doing-The Dougie level or Muppets level. But this GIF should be reserved for events way above the "Hey we now have a unique name for our basketball arena" level.
I'm not a big fan of selling naming rights, especially for college arenas, but I did think it was annoying having two Assembly Halls in the Big Ten.
IU's Assembly hall is more striking of the hoops arenas, but UI's Memorial Stadium is more impressive.
I can forgive that because those are war memorials, and of course we have a memorial sculpture at Michigan Stadium ourselves.
"Assembly Hall," OTOH, is just a bland name. It sounds like a provisional name to be replaced when the school finds an adequate person to name it after.
even if the rep sounds hideous.