Well, happy Wednesday evening – and let me tell you, we’re about to talk about one of the most important issues we are every going to discuss at @AllSportsDACC (yes, there’s a degree of sarcasm in this comment).
If you haven’t heard, our Canadian neighbors to the North are absolutely freaking out about the name change of the Air Canada Center to Scotiabank Arena (the major tenant here, of course, is the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs):
#Toronto is freaking out about the #ACC being renamed https://t.co/i1Vi7ioeHS pic.twitter.com/cuwGqWAXVr
— TorontoNews (@torontonews3) August 30, 2017
Name changes are common for professional sports arenas. Professional sports teams do this to raise revenue. The teams generally ink long-term, high dollar value naming rights deals with businesses – the teams get this additional revenue and the businesses get some advertising for their brand. Scotiabank has apparently shelled out $800 million over 40 years for the naming rights to the Toronto Leafs venue:
#Toronto‘s Air Canada Centre to be renamed Scotiabank Arena in ‘record-setting’ deal https://t.co/MHt3VuJp1s #ACC #TML #Leafs
— Leo (@Lion333) August 29, 2017
And it’s true – you’ve got many, many Canadians that are not not happy with this development:
I wonder if @scotiabank raised my credit card interest rate a few months back so they could afford this #ACC deal? #AirCanadaCentre
— Taylor Miller (@milldawg17) August 29, 2017
Asking for $800,000,000 to buy back the ACC: https://t.co/Emi2R3ZoOK #Toronto #ACC
— Brandon Niles (@BrandonNiles) August 29, 2017
Not feeling the new name. Scotia Centre or Scotiabank Centre would have been better. #ACC #accforever #scotiabank #name #Toronto #CityofTO
— Alex Garcia (@alex_garcia_tv) August 30, 2017
Now this guy seems a big more sensible:
#ACC or #scotiabankarena if the money gets us closer to winning the #StanleyCup who care #mapleleafs. The teams matter not the venues
— Cameron Thomas (@pronoic) August 30, 2017
Now this one was pretty funny:
My dad says the new @MapleLeafs arena nickname should be the #ATM now that it’s named by @scotiabank #ACC
— Chris Ventura (@chris__ventura) August 31, 2017
Except maybe this is Karma here for our Canadian friends that their beloved Air Canada Center will have a name change.
Our neighbors to the North have been stealing (I mean, it’s like corporate heist) the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Twitter hash tag (#ACC) for many, many years. The #ACC is home to the some of the most elite institutions in the entire world, including Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest (the conference has its own academic consortium). As @TalkinACCSports has said, the #ACC is really in the midst of a golden age for its major sports. On top of that, some of the most significant academic research is being published from ACC schools, such as Virginia Tech, who called out water safety in Flint, Michigan, or Georgia Tech’s study on rush hour pollution.
Perhaps the #ACC is getting back what our friends to the North never rightfully owned – the #ACC twitter hash tag is coming back to the correct owner 😉
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