I’ll Meet You At the Kiel Center, err I mean Savvis Center, oh make that Scottrade Center…
Remember the good ole days when a facility was named for the folks that donated the most money or perhaps worked hard to see it built? That was before the phrase, “Naming Rights.” From STL Today:
Town and Country-based Savvis Inc. signed a 20-year naming rights deal in 2000 for $72 million.
But in June 2005, Savvis, plagued by financial troubles, paid $5.5 million to end the naming-rights contract.
So now Scottrade, located in the suburbs of the St. Louis region, is stepping up to have their name on the building. Could the name be any more boring? Scottrade. Don’t get me wrong, they are a fine company (my investment club uses them), but it just doesn’t invoke any excitement. Scottrade. Repeating it does not help.
I can tell you where I’d like to see the Scottrade name — on a local branch actually located in the City of St. Louis. Right now downtown Clayton is the closest branch. It they can be on one of our prominent structures they can at least have a real life presence in our city.
What are some other names that would have been interesting to see instead of Scottrade?
The “You Don’t know Jack Schmidt Center?” No, too long. Also car related we could have the ‘George Weber Johnny Londoff Center’ only here the tag line would be, “We don’t own our building and lot.” My favorite might be the ‘Weekends Only Center’ or ‘Dirt Cheap Center.’
I couldn’t agree more with the boring name choice…..
Also, it’s Johnny Londoff who “owns his building and lot” 🙂
What about the Urban Review Center?
[UR – Hey, I like that! But, they’d have to add street trees out front along with some bicycle racks. Hmmm, this could be a good thing. Excuse me while I go purchase a lottery ticket!]
With all of this money being thrown around, its kinda funny how the old Arena couldn’t be saved.
I mean it we used that instead then perhaps the Opera House would still be open as well.
I mean 72 million for a f*cking name, but the old Arena couldn’t be saved?
That’s ok. I’m sure at the Metrolink stop it is still the Kiel center.
[UR – Actually they were pretty smart and named that station “Civic Center”.]
I think we should have kept it the Savvis Center, but only if they opened a strip club inside. I would like the Cristal concession.
I’ve always wondered why companies like Panera (St. Louis Bread) aren’t out there involved in the community. I don’t expect them to name a stadium, but at all the major events you see Ameren, Laclede Gas, BJC, to name a few. Very few times do you see Panera, a Billion dollar firm in Richmond Heights.
I could care less what a facility is called – the more they can get for naming rights, the less taxpayers will have to pay for (after being held hostage with threats that “their” team will leave town unless they get some “critical” taxpayer support – see Ballpark Village for the example-du-jour!).
But since you asked, it’d be pretty cool to have the Schlafly Dome within eyesight of the A-B complex . . .
[UR – But the ‘Schlafly Dome’ might not be understood as Schlafly Beer (great product) but that of Phyllis Schlafly. No way am I going anywhere with her name on it.]
or, with Purina nearby, how ’bout the Dog Chow Dome?!
Our tax dollars, City and State, will be put to work making and erecting street and highway signs to replace the current signage. Maybe they could auction off the old ones.
As for alternate names, perhaps a Zoo-style naming game as is done for newborn elephants would be an entertaining option.
How about these:
Praxair Center
Enterprise Leasing Center
Food For Less Center
Pyramid Development Center
Desco Shoppes at Clark Plaza Place Centre. Only problem is we would need to tear down the Opera house for a garage and seal all the doors from the sidewalk. Wouldn’t want any people walking in or taking public transit.
Or we could go with Travis’ Pyramid Development Center and open the mother of all McDonald’s.
While you are talking about the area…..when are those horrible Jersey barriers going to be removed from the plaza across the street? If security is still a concern then why can’t we have some nice bollards put up instead.
Matt’s got the idea–its all about branding and revenue streams! Replace the consession stands with McDs, paint ads on the ice, and install pay toilets!
Bi-State informs patrons that City Hall is across the street from the Civic Center station. They should have named it the City Hall station. Makes more sense than calling it Civic Center.
My beef with the Civic Center name is that there was never an entity using “Civic” in its name or a dba using “Civic” associated with any of the structures to the north of that station. Across the street was Henry W. Kiel Municipal Auditorium (Kiel Auditorium). It was razed to build Kiel Center. Kiel Center Partners owns the Kiel Center fictitious name registration. The City’s parking facility adjacent the Center still carries the Kiel name.
“Civic Center” for decades has been associated with Busch Stadium. Civic Center Redevelopment Corp. was responsible for Civic Center Busch Memorial Stadium (Busch Stadium II); survivor to 1981 merger with AB Merger Corp.; survivor to 1982 merger with AB Subsidiary Inc. (1982); 1982 name change to Civic Center Corp.; survivor to 1986 merger with Busch Stadium Club Inc., Stadium Maintenance Corp., and St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame; survivor to 1997 merger with SLNBC Inc. (previously St. Louis National Baseball Club Inc.).
I just noticed that there’s still at least one instance of “Kiel Center” signage at the Civic Center MetroLink station. Stand on the side of the platform where the eastbound trains arrive and look at the glass divider that runs down the middle of the platform. The old “Kiel Center” name appears at least once in the blue bar along the top of the divider. That’s the only one I can vouch for, but I saw it there just this past Wednesday, so it’s almost definitely still there.
That was the original name of the station – “Civic Center” came along after the arena was renamed Savvis Center and Bi-State realized they couldn’t afford to change the name of the stop every five years if the naming rights changed.
When the new Busch Stadium was being built, I had this idea: if I ran a company who had millions to spend on the stadium naming rights, I’d have named it something like Stan Musial Field or Jack Buck Stadium, then been very public about how it was my company that made that possible. I think the goodwill and good publicity would far outweigh the benefits of simply having my company’s name up there.