San Francisco stadium renamed again

[Lorena]

Well, at least they're staying consistent staying with the telecommunications field:

Fri Feb 3, 4:39 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The San Francisco Giants changed the name of their stadium on Friday for the third time since 2004, a result of continuous changes in the corporate world that pay handsomely for sports naming rights.

The stadium, within walking distance of central San Francisco, will change from SBC Park to AT&T Park. Last year SBC bought AT&T and adopted the AT&T name as it became the largest U.S. telecommunications company.

Opened in 2000 as Pacific Bell Park, the stadium changed its name to SBC Park in January 2004. Before then, its famous players such as Willie Mays engaged in the national pastime between the airport and central San Francisco at Candlestick Park.

AT&T Park could be the focus of nationwide attention in the coming baseball season as the single-season home run champion Barry Bonds seeks to overtake Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time U.S. home run record books.

U.S. sports teams have sold the naming rights to their stadiums for many millions of dollars in recent years. The former parent company of Pacific Bell paid $50 million in 1996 in a 24-year naming rights deal with the Giants.

[kcchief19]

At least it's not like Baltimore or St. Louis where PSINet and TWA went bankrupt and sold off the naming rights. This is a case where Southwestern Bell bought the rights and named it Pacific Bell after the company they owned there, then changed it to SBC Park when they changed the name of the company to SBC and the same again when they changed the name to AT&T.

Not a lot different than Mrs. kcchief, who had an account at Metro North Bank, which was acquired by Boatmen's Bank, which was acquired by Nations Bank which was acquired by Bank of America. Four banks, one account.

[RPI-Fan]

First sentence of the story is plain old wrong.

The name hasn't CHANGED for the third time since 2004, the stadium has it's 3rd different name since then.

Big difference, and awful writing.

[tarcone]

not Balco ballpark?

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

At least it's not like Baltimore or St. Louis where PSINet and TWA went bankrupt and sold off the naming rights. This is a case where Southwestern Bell bought the rights and named it Pacific Bell after the company they owned there, then changed it to SBC Park when they changed the name of the company to SBC and the same again when they changed the name to AT&T.

Not a lot different than Mrs. kcchief, who had an account at Metro North Bank, which was acquired by Boatmen's Bank, which was acquired by Nations Bank which was acquired by Bank of America. Four banks, one account.

Actually, NationsBank bought BofA and took the name, kinda like what SBC just did with AT&T.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Not a lot different than Mrs. kcchief, who had an account at Metro North Bank, which was acquired by Boatmen's Bank, which was acquired by Nations Bank which was acquired by Bank of America. Four banks, one account.

My mother can beat that. She was employed by National Bank of Detroit (NBD) which was bought by First Chicago and became First Chicago NBD. They were then bought by Bank One and the name was changed again. Bank One sold all the FCNBD employees in Detroit to Compuware and they still had the same jobs, but were technically contractors employed by Compuware. Bank One then ended their partnership with Compuware and she became an employee of Compuware, working at Compuware's offices out in a Detroit suburb, but was then moved downtown after several months. She was then fired when they began getting rid of American employees for imported Indian and Chinese workers.

If she still worked for the bank... Bank One was bought by Chase!

[Craptacular]

Are there actually any Bells left now? SBC at least stood for Southwestern Bell Corp, but now I'm not sure if there is anything "Bell" remaining.

[Wolfpack]

I think BellSouth still exists. It's not a megalith like SBC/AT&T or Verizon (the former Bell Atlantic). I think SBC bought out just about all the other regional bells, didn't they?

[finkenst]

cincinnati bell still exists, afaik,

[st.cronin]

What's with all these bank mergers over the last few years? It seems like every bank has either been bought or bought somebody else. I've never heard a cogent explanation of why that industry seems so merger/acquisition prone.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

What's with all these bank mergers over the last few years? It seems like every bank has either been bought or bought somebody else. I've never heard a cogent explanation of why that industry seems so merger/acquisition prone.

I believe there was reform legislation some years ago that made it far easier for banks to operate traditional banking services widely across state lines (which had been very limited up to that point). The inevitable is happening -- a market once dominated by fairly small operations in each state is now being gobbled up by a few big hitters.

[JediKooter]

I work for the damn company and I don't even know what name we go by now.