MCI Center to be Verizon Center

WASHINGTON -- The MCI Center is about to become the Verizon Center.

Verizon Communications Inc. completed its purchase of MCI Inc. on Friday, making way for a change at the home of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics. The name switch will officially take place sometime before the end of March.

The 20,000-seat arena, built by Wizards owner Abe Pollin, opened in downtown Washington in December 1997 and has spurred an economic revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood. It hosts an average of 220 events per year, including Georgetown basketball, concerts and other shows.

We should use that in the v1.04 roster

Thanks for the information...living a few min from DC and being on vacation I didn't hear about it until now.

I think Phoenix gym is getting a new name too, but I'm not sure:crazy:

Damn, all those "Can you hear me now?" commercials sure worked.

I think Phoenix gym is getting a new name too, but I'm not sure:crazy:

Yes, it changed names on Friday. It is now called "US Airways Arena" I believe.

Why does almost every single arena in the States get named after an airline???

Why does almost every single arena in the States get named after an airline???

It doesn't. For the NBA there is only like 3 or 4.

That's 2 or 3 too many, Riot.

And BTW, I heard they were going to rename Target Center. They said that the name resulted in high risk of 'accidental' smart bombing by US airplanes...

I think naming arneas after companies is fucking stupid. How many people are going to shop at Target because they named an arena after it? You'd have to have been sheltered from the outside world for all of your life to not know what Target is and what they sell. If I were picking an airline, I wouldn't pick the one I saw on the floor of an arena... I'd go to expedia and pick the cheapest fare I could find.

I'm surprised there isn't a Wal-Mart Center yet......

Is The Arena in Oakland the only arena yet to have been taken over by the marketing craze? What about the Rose Garden? Does that advertise anything?

Stadiums are very expensive to run and mantain. Getting a sponser helps pay for some of the costs.

That I understand.. what I don't understand is how it could possibly benefit from the sponsor's side.

Good advertising space and they have a stadium named after them.

I'm starting to think it's just an ego thing... everything corporate is egocentric

Of course they want to be egocentric.

Of course they want to be egocentric.

It's their JOB!

PAlace of Auburn Hills? Does it advertise something?

It advertises Hills.

It advertises Hills.

I hope that was a joke, Bob. Albeit a bad one.

Says the King of the bad jokes...

Good advertising space and they have a stadium named after them.

Definitely. It's all about advertising. I'm taking a course on advertising right now, and the numbers are incredible in terms of how many ads are out there, being used by media forms, and how we are consuming it despite of our intentions to ignore them.

Says the King of the bad jokes...

Hey, Brutus came out of teh closet!

it'd suck if the Palace was renamed to something stupid like The Ford Center