11/05/24
February 25, 2005
The Derek Jeter Center: "The arena is in downtown Boston, the heart of Red Sox Nation. There couldn't be a bigger insult than to name it after the captain of the hated New York Yankees." Follow up to the FleetCenter story. See also this Metafilter thread.
posted by Joey Michaels to general at 01:57 PM - 16 comments
Boston news (Channel 5, I believe) reported it as Jeter himself making the donation. That doesn't appear to be the case, but would have been a lot cooler and probably would have avoided any legal issues. Since it's just a fan it loses some luster for me. Besides, I don't think there's an event there that night, the Celtics play Wed (can you imagine if it coincided with the return of Antoine Walker?) And I'm pretty sure the Bruins...nevermind.
posted by YukonGold at 02:39 PM on February 25, 2005
I predicted this would happen on THIS THREAD (see my comments near the bottom of the thread) and was told that I was silly to do so because of the baseball theme. Hate to say I told you so.....
posted by mayerkyl at 02:51 PM on February 25, 2005
I can't see Jeter vetoing this. Delaware North, that's another story, they have to live in that town.
posted by billsaysthis at 03:30 PM on February 25, 2005
I wonder if Steinbrenner put up the money for the winning bid?
posted by roberts at 05:11 PM on February 25, 2005
It's over now. The Fleetcenter vetoed it and a former roomate of the original bidder raised it to $8,600 and secured the name Jimmy Fund Center. Could have been a nightmare for Boston after what happened with BallGate. It's good that it's going to a worthy cause and the two friends involved see the light-heartedness of it all.
posted by YukonGold at 08:56 PM on February 25, 2005
I love a happy ending.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:18 PM on February 25, 2005
Jeetaaaah Centaaah? What the fawk? Jeetaaaahhh, you sawwwwk! You sawwwwwk!!! /drunken Sox fan Glad to see it all worked out.
posted by psmealey at 09:04 AM on February 26, 2005
Wussies!
posted by billsaysthis at 05:42 PM on February 26, 2005
what billsaysthis said.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:17 PM on February 26, 2005
from what i read, the bankees fan who wanted to name it the derek jeter center was a lawyer from manhattan
posted by DaGeneral at 12:41 AM on February 27, 2005
Suppose they'd called it the Babe Ruth center instead...?
posted by alumshubby at 07:56 PM on February 27, 2005
Here's another one for you. Initially, the "new" arena in Philadelphia year ago was the CoreStates Center, named after a big bank in the region. Well, CoreStates was up for grabs, and its suitors including Bank of Boston. Imagine what Philadelphians would have thought if their home teams were playing in the Bank of Boston Center -- in Philadelphia! As it turned out, First Union took over CoreStates, and the arena (for a while) became known as the First Union Center. Which, according to some Philadelphians' way of thinking, was very amusing, as the Flyers and Sixers were playing in the F.U. Center. Now, of course, it's the Wachovia Center, but the choices here -- both real and imagined -- were the source of great amusement and (with respect to Bank of Boston) some fear.
posted by SportsProf at 05:17 AM on March 01, 2005
Well, for all of yesterday (Feb 28) the FleetCentre was called "Boston Garden", thanks to the owner of this website. It wasn't his original suggestion (UFIA Centre and Abe Vigoda Memorial Centre were supposedly turned down), but a compromise to which the Fleet Centre people agreed.
posted by grum@work at 10:26 AM on March 01, 2005
Who the hell's calling it the "Fleet Centre" anyway?
posted by yerfatma at 11:06 AM on March 01, 2005
Jesus, is there any sense on bidding on this at all? Everything suggested that has at least one iota of humor gets rejected by the committee! Here's hoping someone suggests my personal fave -- the Mary Jo Kopechne Centre.
posted by wfrazerjr at 09:11 PM on March 01, 2005
There are some legal issues here -- the Fleet Center would be using Jeter's rights of publicity (presumably) without his permission.