Sep 29 2008
Wachovia taken over - arena name change to follow?
As the Flyers bid farewell to their old home, The Spectrum, last the weekend, they will get ready for moving into a new home. Well, not really. But as you may have heard, Citigroup will be taking over Wachovia Bank. When I heard about this news, just like any concerned citizen, the first thing that crossed my mind was - when will the name of the Wachovia Center change? You see, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to name the center after a bank. Due to mergers, the name has changed from the CoreStates Center to the First Union Center to the Wachovia Center to ??? And it’s only been open for 12 years.
They should have used the original name proposed before it was built - Spectrum II - which might be lame, but at least doesn’t change. The funniest part about the building’s naming history is that at one point they considered changing the name because they didn’t like people calling it the “F-U Center”. They wanted to change it to the First Union National Center, or FUN Center. One of my favorite Flyers at the time, Brantt Myhres, said the name would make the building sound like a “circus venue”. The weird thing is that most arenas and stadiums sell their naming rights now, but they only get a couple of million a year to do so, which is nothing compared to their overall revenue. To me it would mean more if they pick a name and stick with it.
And what a marketing nightmare, they probably spend more money trying to rebrand themselves with a new name and have to update loads of web pages, links and print materials.