Raleigh Missing Naming Opportunity for Amphitheatre
Today WRAL is reporting that the City of Raleigh has reached a tentative agreement with Bud Light for naming rights of the new downtown amphitheater. At this point state liquor laws won’t allow it, but of course if there is a check to be written, laws can be changed.
This amphitheater should be dedicated to and named after Sir Walter Raleigh for three reasons:
- It stands on the site that once hosted Sir Walter Chevrolet
- We don’t have ANYTHING around this city named after Walter Raleigh. We have a city name and a statue downtown. No parkways, schools, public facilities.
- The amphitheater could affectionately be known as "THE WALT". We don’t have a decent moniker for our civic center, large amphitheater, or professional arena. This gives us the chance to assign a good, fun, innocent name to the place.
Certainly naming rights can be sold, but to honor the knighted one is the right thing to do for the long run. Remember Hardee’s Walnut Creek Amphitheater and the BTI Center? Naming rights may come and go, but a dedication is long term.
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May 13th, 2010 at 6:12 am
Agreed. People really should make a fuss about this. Even id budlight is paying the bills, naming the amphitheater after a beer is pathetic. I can’t believe that Mayor Meeker is supporting it, he continues to disappoint.
May 13th, 2010 at 9:42 am
It would be wonderful to have civic space that actually is fully civic and does not have a corporate moniker slapped on it for a fee.
Dana/others – any thoughts on who the best parties are to voice our thoughts to?
May 13th, 2010 at 10:15 am
In my experience, no one pays attention to the actual name anyways–since official corporate names change so often.
Case in point: Walnut Creek. I’m sure it has a corporate sponsor, but I don’t know who it is. I’ve always just called it “Walnut Creek.” Same thing with Memorial Auditorium, Meymandi, Kennedy, etc. Although they’re technically the “Progress Energy Center,” I always just call them by their individual names.
Chances are that whatever the thing is called, most Raleigh citizens are just going to call it “the downtown amphitheatre.”
May 14th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
“We don’t have ANYTHING around this city named after Walter Raleigh. We have a city name and a statue downtown. No parkways, schools, public facilities.”
I thought there was a retirement home downtown called The Sir Walter Hotel.
Also, I’ve always referred to the RBC Center as the Jimmy V Coliseum, which is what it SHOULD have been called back when NC State had the brilliant idea of selling the naming rights. I despise the whole idea of naming rights, in general. If you want to “sponsor” a public facility, fine. But DON’T name it after your company! Just brandish the inside walls with ads for your company every 30 feet so that I can LOOK at your ads rather than having to BECOME your advertisement every time I want to say, “Hey, you want to go see X play at the RBC Center?”
Public facilities should always be named after either the places where they are located (Walnut Creek Amphitheater) or people who were important to the local history (Dean Smith Center).
May 15th, 2010 at 12:27 am
Thanks for reminding me! The 1924 building that nobody under 60 has spent any quality time in. Good point, but it kind of backs my point.
May 18th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
For those who feel strong about the amphitheater not having a corporate name slapped on it, you can have your voice heard hear:
http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_306_207_0_43/http;/pt03/DIG_Web_Content/category/Government/DowntownAmphitheatreNamingRightsSurvey.html
If you prefer a corporate sponsor, please forget you read this….
Dana – hope you don’t mind my adding this to your posts about the Amphitheater. You got me started wishing it would not have another corporate sponsor’s name on it.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Need be ACORN for the Raleigh trees.
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:10 am
After the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s (ACORN) stunts, I certainly don’t want the city even remotely supporting that group.