In recent decades, major sports teams have been selling naming rights to their stadiums. San Francisco’s historic Candlestick Park was renamed 3-Com Stadium, the Arizona Diamondbacks play in Bank One Ballpark, and Heinz Stadium is home to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bowl games sell corporate sponsorships (i.e.: the 96th Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi or the Valero Energy Alamo Bowl) and although they often turn event names into lengthy, tongue-twisting titles, the sponsorships also provide much needed revenue. It is precisely this revenue source that prompted officials in New York City to consider selling naming rights to some very unconventional facilities.

Faced with a massive $2 billion deficit, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority began searching for corporate sponsors for – of all things – the city’s subway stops. For five years the MTA offered corporate naming rights to the underground but there were no takers – until now. If the $4 million deal is approved, Barclays Bank will be added to the already lengthy named Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue subway stop in downtown Brooklyn. Although in this case the sponsorship may make sense (the subway stop will serve Barclays Center, a new sports arena scheduled to open in 2012), it certainly begs the question of whether traveling around NYC will still have that authentic New York flavor when conductors find themselves announcing “McDonald’s Big Mac Lincoln Center,” or “Yahoo! Rockefeller Center.”

If we’d all treat each other the way the girls in this video did, it would be a better world.

Those of you who have been faithfully reading my blog know that I am enamored with Sarasota’s commitment to culture and the arts. But this morning I saw another side of Sarasota – its passion for sports. I have always known that Florida (along with Arizona, where I also lived for 11 years) is the winter training grounds for Major League Baseball. Today I learned that Sarasota has been hosting spring training since 1920, longer than any other city in Florida. The Cincinnati Reds train here and a huge crowd was on hand to welcome them back at a rally this morning in front of the downtown library. The faithful came in all shapes and sizes:

Men in Reds T-shirts

And women in Reds T-shirts

Read the rest of this entry »