Some may scoff, but the biggest soccer teams in the world have already sold their jerseys to corporations and the names to most American sports venues have been sold to corporations. I'd rather have a corporate name than a dumb name.

FedEx Conference
Nationwide Insurance Conference
Delta Airlines Conference
Disney Conference
American Express Conference
Coca-Cola Conference

There is already the Barclay's Premier League and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"Why not sell the conference name to a corporation?"

HMM? Maybe because this is the most shlt idea ever...Thats why. Nothing says awesome like selling your identity to the highest bidder. It would just be one more negative story that the media could use to poke fun at the big east for a couple of weeks.

Because then we'd up with something stupid like the KFC Yum! Center (no offense intended at Louisville fans, it's not a knock on anyone but KFC themselves).

(03-06-2013 01:24 PM)Mtyler Wrote:  "Why not sell the conference name to a corporation?"

HMM? Maybe because this is the most shlt idea ever...Thats why. Nothing says awesome like selling your identity to the highest bidder. It would just be one more negative story that the media could use to poke fun at the big east for a couple of weeks.

It think you are being short sighted. It's only a matter of time before the Big XII, SEC and Big Ten sell naming rights. Why not beat them to the punch?

The reason you don't, is the brand is not currently strong enough to deal with chaging names every few years. NASCAR has had to change the name of their main series, the secondary series, and the truck series in the past few year.s However it didn;t matter because they were still known as NASCAR. The equivalent would be selling the naming rights to each sports league. The Fed EX (basketball) series. The McDonald's (football) series, etc.

(03-06-2013 01:25 PM)Lord2FLI Wrote:  Because then we'd up with something stupid like the KFC Yum! Center (no offense intended at Louisville fans, it's not a knock on anyone but KFC themselves).

The funny thing about that, is most people don't realize that YUM Brands is the name of the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. They wanted to call it the YUM Center, but did not want to pass up the use of the more recognized Kentucky Fried Chicken name.

Conference Of Missplaced Programs USA

COMP USA can be our sponsor.

(03-06-2013 01:31 PM)3601 Wrote:  

(03-06-2013 01:24 PM)Mtyler Wrote:  "Why not sell the conference name to a corporation?"

HMM? Maybe because this is the most shlt idea ever...Thats why. Nothing says awesome like selling your identity to the highest bidder. It would just be one more negative story that the media could use to poke fun at the big east for a couple of weeks.

It think you are being short sighted. It's only a matter of time before the Big XII, SEC and Big Ten sell naming rights. Why not beat them to the punch?

I highly doubt that. The BIG10 is not willing to come off their name with 14 members, so why would they drop it for a little corporate cash. The conference names have enough value in their own right that it would probably not even make them any money to sell naming rights anyway. It would cost so much money for a corporate entity to buy naming right on a year by year basis, it would make no sense. fedex forum cost fedex 90 million over 20 years or 4.5 million per year. Do you think any BIG 10 school would agree to part ways with their conference name for 370K/year. Hell no. lets say each school would be willing to do it for 3 mill per year. That is still a low number relative to what they already make. This would cost a company 42 million/year. NO naming rights would be worth that to a corporation when you could go name Jerry world for at least a 1/4 of that price.

(03-06-2013 01:46 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  The reason you don't, is the brand is not currently strong enough to deal with chaging names every few years. NASCAR has had to change the name of their main series, the secondary series, and the truck series in the past few year.s However it didn;t matter because they were still known as NASCAR. The equivalent would be selling the naming rights to each sports league. The Fed EX (basketball) series. The McDonald's (football) series, etc.

(03-06-2013 01:25 PM)Lord2FLI Wrote:  Because then we'd up with something stupid like the KFC Yum! Center (no offense intended at Louisville fans, it's not a knock on anyone but KFC themselves).

The funny thing about that, is most people don't realize that YUM Brands is the name of the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. They wanted to call it the YUM Center, but did not want to pass up the use of the more recognized Kentucky Fried Chicken name.

Honestly I think it's the exclamation point that annoys me more than anything. If it had just been the YUM Center, I think I could live with that (not that I have a choice lol).

Excellent points about branding, things like NASCAR or the PGA or the Orange Bowl can change names all day long because people already know who they are, we don't have that luxury.

Well, the corporate name is YUM! Brands. Take issue with the company name (it's not great) but the Arena name is purely just the name of the company.

You said the Orange Bowl. You bring up a very good point. For the secondary bowls, if I name the sponsor, can you even tell which bowl it used to be? The Capitol One Bowl used to be the Citris Bowl, and the Chik-Fil-A Bowl used ot be the Peach Bowl. But after that, it gets really hairy. Can anyone name where the Blockbuster Bowl was, the John Hancock Bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Champs (err Russell Atheltic) Bowl, the GMAC Bowl, etc. They change names so often, you can't track them down anymore.

If the name of our conference wound up being the "Metro Conference", I would have no problem with selling the naming rights to FedEx, GM, GE or anyone else. We already do it for conference championship games, tournaments and bowls so why not make a little cash by doing the same for the conference itself?

As for me, money talks. My guess is that if we can all make a few extra million per year in revenue AND get additional promotion out of the deal then we will not have an issue with it at all.

This has been discussed in detail over the previous few days. Sure it sounds dumb but the money might be too good to pass up.

Fed Ex (or whoever) logo on every field and every court.
Fed Ex name in every newspaper, sports website and televised sporting event with scores crawling across the bottom.
Fed Ex name and logo on every highlight show.

No other conference can do this even if they wanted. "Big Ten Presented by Fed Ex" doesn't work. It would still be Big Ten in every media display and mention. The logo would get a bit of airplay but the complete name wouldn't fly.

I believe this exposure would be worth more than our tv contract. This isn't something we can easily dismiss just because it sounds dumb. Besides, negative attention is still attention. In our case, it's better than being anonymous.

(03-06-2013 04:12 PM)Tampa Bearcat Wrote:  This has been discussed in detail over the previous few days. Sure it sounds dumb but the money might be too good to pass up.

Fed Ex (or whoever) logo on every field and every court.
Fed Ex name in every newspaper, sports website and televised sporting event with scores crawling across the bottom.
Fed Ex name and logo on every highlight show.

No other conference can do this even if they wanted. "Big Ten Presented by Fed Ex" doesn't work. It would still be Big Ten in every media display and mention. The logo would get a bit of airplay but the complete name wouldn't fly.

I believe this exposure would be worth more than our tv contract. This isn't something we can easily dismiss just because it sounds dumb. Besides, negative attention is still attention. In our case, it's better than being anonymous.

It's just really hard for me to believe the NCAA would admit/allow a conference with a corporate name (unless they were getting a cut).

We should sell it to an Adult Entertainment Company.Let them take care of all the marketing and recruitment of players. We would be one of the top Conf in the country within 3 years. Got to think outside the box sometime.

Selling the conference name makes too much sense so it won't happen.
Universities name buildings and colleges after large donors, we all can be
money whores when it makes sense.

(03-06-2013 04:15 PM)OUGwave Wrote:  

(03-06-2013 04:12 PM)Tampa Bearcat Wrote:  This has been discussed in detail over the previous few days. Sure it sounds dumb but the money might be too good to pass up.

Fed Ex (or whoever) logo on every field and every court.
Fed Ex name in every newspaper, sports website and televised sporting event with scores crawling across the bottom.
Fed Ex name and logo on every highlight show.

No other conference can do this even if they wanted. "Big Ten Presented by Fed Ex" doesn't work. It would still be Big Ten in every media display and mention. The logo would get a bit of airplay but the complete name wouldn't fly.

I believe this exposure would be worth more than our tv contract. This isn't something we can easily dismiss just because it sounds dumb. Besides, negative attention is still attention. In our case, it's better than being anonymous.

It's just really hard for me to believe the NCAA would admit/allow a conference with a corporate name (unless they were getting a cut).

I hope you are being sarcastic.

In and of itself, it is not a horrible idea. The problem is the fleeting nature of naming rights deals, and the conference name would change every few years potentially. That is the poison pill in the idea.

(03-06-2013 04:12 PM)Tampa Bearcat Wrote:  This has been discussed in detail over the previous few days. Sure it sounds dumb but the money might be too good to pass up.

Fed Ex (or whoever) logo on every field and every court.
Fed Ex name in every newspaper, sports website and televised sporting event with scores crawling across the bottom.
Fed Ex name and logo on every highlight show.

No other conference can do this even if they wanted. "Big Ten Presented by Fed Ex" doesn't work. It would still be Big Ten in every media display and mention. The logo would get a bit of airplay but the complete name wouldn't fly.

I believe this exposure would be worth more than our tv contract. This isn't something we can easily dismiss just because it sounds dumb. Besides, negative attention is still attention. In our case, it's better than being anonymous.

Finally some common sense.

If you can have the Chick-fil-a Bowl and the Capital One Bowl then you can certainly have the Chevrolet Conference or the Exxon Conference.

The exposure would be almost priceless.

naming rights to highest bidder? Like Capital One or Discover League?

Common Sense? The Citrus Bowl, now known as the Capitol One Bowl, has had three corporate sponsors since 1999. It is also very hard to trace it's history for the average fan (Same with the Peach bowl AKA the Chick-Fil-A Bowl). That means using that model, between now and 2025, you could be looking at a fourth name for the conference, the current name, and three new sponsor names. That is why you don't want to do that.