NPR's Scott Simon ponders stadium naming rights: how relatively inexpensive it is for companies to link their brands to major league ballparks and football fields.
Fans and spectators walk to the entrance of Chicago's Comiskey Park on April 9, 1990, for the opening day of the final Major League Baseball season there.Fans and spectators walk to the entrance of Chicago's Comiskey Park on April 9, 1990, for the opening day of the final Major League Baseball season there.Ballpark names aren't what they used to be. And I mean that — to use an overworked word of our times — literally.it was AT&T Park. U.S.
The Houston Astros play in Minute Maid Park. It was Enron Field when the park opened in 2000, but in 2001, the oil company went bankrupt in a sensational accounting scandal. The Astros had to sue to get the Enron name off of their ballpark, but won their division. They had a better year than Enron.Fans like me might be pointlessly sentimental when it comes to stadium names, but they used to be personal, not corporate.
Instead of seeing stadium names as one more chance to sell advertising, teams could salute players and fans by naming their parks after one of their own departed greats. There should be a Jackie Robinson Park, a Roberto Clemente Field, and one day perhaps, a Shohei Otani Stadium. They're the names that made games worth watching.
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