Bank of Am...err...Alaska Airlines Arena
Does anyone else feel really old when faced with the corporate sponsorship athletic conglomeration that is now an orgy of names? Clearwire presents the Ford Automotive trophy presentation recap brought to you in part by Coors Light! Whhhhhhat? Ooof.
Since it happens gradually, we usually barely even notice that every sporting event, arena and stadium is a constant advertisement. Except when all of a sudden that's a new, different sounding name we have to ignore.
The decade-old Bank of America Arena is now the Alaska Airlines Arena. It would be one thing if we had read a half of a tweet about it and then saw a quarter of a headline in our RSS feed 13 times, before hearing a coworker mention it and a blurb on the local news at the gym three days later. Then, we'd have been prepared. But in this day and age, you expect us to show up for a Thursday night game WHOLLY UNIFORMED? And not wonder WTF is going with all of the Alaska Airline logos everywhere? The big screen promos are making "Huskies...Taking Off!" jokes...what does this all mean?? Why are you cutting my half time middle school dance team show short to see a bunch of white CEOs and Athletic Officials handing off a toy plane?
Of course it doesn't really matter whether it's a bank or an airline; give us a pretzel and some jokes pretending Aziz N'Diaye's last name is Handjive and we're happy as clams. If Alaska Airlines wants to keep that happening, so be it.
Needless to stay, when we checked in on Foursquare 20 minutes before the game, it was Bank of America Arena. By halftime it was America Airlines Arena...that took way too long.
