By now you’ve surely heard the news. It’s the twilight of a humble, minimalist, all-too-brief era. The last official days of STADIUM draw near. Yes sports fans, the former Qualcomm Stadium will soon be SDCCU Stadium, or informally, San Diego County Credit Union Stadium.
The rumor filtered our way this morning, then late today the agenda for next Tuesday’s San Diego City Council meeting included this item:
Boom, there it is. SDCCU Stadium. It’s not terrible. Bland and sterile, but at least SD is in the name. SDCCU is a local not-for-profit cooperative financial institution, an organization of real community value. The logo they’ll soon be slapping on the ol’ Concrete Tombstone is an inoffensive little sailboat we’re all familiar with.
Fox Sports Net gets a nice $125,000 commission for a few month’s work. There were just four “viable” bidders, and it seems our beloved STADIUM dodged some naming-rights bullets. Besides the credit union the only bidders were:
Gemini Sports Group, a Phoenix company that handles sponsorships and naming rights; Mitek, a San Diego-based mobile technology firm; and Traction Video, a San Diego video production firm.
Jeez, Louise. None of those sound very good to name a stadium after, and you have to wonder if their bids were anywhere close to the winning $500k bid. I do hope this proves to be correct:
Skip the cutesy nicknames folks. Just call it the stadium.
If you’re among the privileged 45,000-plus this weekend cheering on our Aztecs against the Stanford tree, before the final ink is spilled sealing the temporary name of our maligned venue, take a long look around and enjoy the simple unadorned aesthetic of STADIUM. It feels your presence, and your gratitude.
KABEER THIRTY 