The Ottawa Citizen reports this morning that the Senators have done a new deal for the naming rights on the Corel Centre. The Senators will now play at "Scotiabank Place". I’m happy for Corel that they’ve unloaded this dinosaur. In 2000 I told then Corel CEO Derek Burney that he ought to sell the rights to someone else. An expenditure of $2M per year to brand a $100M company in it’s local market was just loopy.
I have to confess, though, that the whole thing leaves me a little cold. I’d much rather see the return of the Ottawa Palladium, the Montreal Forum, Candlestick Park, Maple Leaf Gardens, and so on. These were real places that sparked the imagination and invoked the emotions of the fans. They were more than simply expensive billboards for the latest bidder to snap up. What image does the Air Canada Centre conjure up? Long lines? Expensive tickets? Poor service?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Alec –
why not the Iotum IotaSphere?? (Where Senators are actually Relevant!)
Mitch
Heheh… sure Mitch!