Hiawassee Street was closed Friday morning as crews worked to install the much-anticipated US Cellular sign on the building formerly known as the Asheville Civic Center. The renaming of Asheville’s largest public venue was a contentious and hotly-debated topic.
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Sad day for Asheville.
That’s it?? Just “US Cellular”? No “Center” indicating that it’s not a cell phone store? That’s confusing. And ridiculous.
Much anticipated?! Gee, Max, you must be new here.
They mean “much anticipated” by U.S. Cellular, not the majority of citizens.
If they give me $1.35 million, I’ll stop calling it the Civic Center. Our City leaders are the most bonehead marketers on earth.
Less than two months after Asheville sold their naming rights for $1.35 million, Cedar frikkin’ Rapids announced they got $3.8 million out of US Cellular for a similar deal. Cedar Rapids is in the middle of frikkin’ Iowa, and their metro population is about half of ours.
http://thegazette.com/2012/02/22/corbett-announcing-new-naming-rights-deal-for-u-s-cellular-center/
The Cedar Rapids agreement is for ten years. Isn’t the Asheville agreement for five years? Could that account for the difference in Mr. Summers’s Cedarfrickin’ Rapids deal?
The $1.35 mil for Asheville is for 8 years:
http://tinyurl.com/bt7qmax
$168,750 per year vs. $380,000 per for Cedar Rapids. Less than half.
Don’t get me wrong – I wish they hadn’t sold the Civic out from under us for any amount. But the cheap price tag just adds insult to injury.
Thanks to Mr. Summers for clarification.
Congrats to city officials for working out this deal with US Cellular to offset the financial drain that was the Civic Center. Maybe there are some other naming opportunities.