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Is renaming the Jake a progressive move?

Renaming stadiums is all about money

Published on Saturday, Jan 12, 2008


It's no longer going to be the Jake anymore?

Admit it.

That's the first thing we all thought when we learned that the Indians had signed a 16-year, nearly $58 million sponsorship deal with Progressive Auto Insurance to change the Jake to ''Progressive Field.''

This is progress?

Couldn't we at least have aligned with the gecko from Geiko?

Progressive it is, though, thanks to Peter Lewis, the man whose name somehow has become aligned with the words ''billionaire'' and ''philanthropist.'' Odd, isn't it, how certain adjectives become attached to certain people. But we digress.

The edifice on Ontario is no longer the Jake.

Shed a tear, then dry your eye quickly. Because this change became inevitable the day the living ''Jake'' sold the team to the Dolans.

Because when Dick Jacobs sold the Indians, he got every penny he could out of the team. Three-hundred-and-twenty-million dollars' worth of pennies.

Jacobs sold, as they say, at the ''right time.''

Jacobs, as they say, ''maximized'' his asset.

And that sale and the subsequent tearing down and rebuilding of the team cost the Dolans attendance and put the Indians in the position of budgeting based on attendance, which limited revenue and made it impossible to keep players like Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome.

So the Dolans have to get income where they can.

And they're getting some from renaming the field at the stadium.

Jacobs cost us and himself ''the Jake.''

But really, what's the difference? Jacobs paid $10 million to have the field at the new stadium named after him,


naming rights that expired in 2006. Though it's kind of curious that a private man paid money to name a public building after himself, the Jake kind of caught on. Now it'll be the ''Prog'' or something else inane like that.

Does it matter, though? After all, look how quickly we accepted ''the Gund'' becoming ''the Q.''

There could be an argument made that since Jacobs helped save the Indians, or at least changed their fortunes, direction and image, the Jake should be named after him in perpetuity.

Why?

Is Dick Jacobs any more important than, say, Bob Feller in Indians history?

Feller Field has a nice ring to it, no?

Or Tris Speaker?

Or Larry Doby, the first African-American in the American League?

How about making a meaningful statement and naming it Doby Park — to honor a man and player whose impact goes beyond dollars and sense.

Won't happen, though, because Doby can't pay.

Progressive can.

And if the naming rights going to Progressive helps the Indians re-sign C.C. Sabathia, is anyone going to argue?

This is the way of the world in sports anymore, and the Indians are as good as anyone at securing sponsorships for things — right down to the hot dog race between innings.

Change is constant in professional sports anymore.

Players leave via free agency.

Potential hall of famers are linked to steroid use.

Coaches and managers come and go.

And stadiums are named and renamed when the right bidder comes along.

As a football coach once said: ''It's always about the money. Whenever they say it's not about the money . . . it's about the money.''

So it is with Progressive Field.

Even if at first glance it doesn't seem like a real progressive move.

Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com.


Get the full article here.


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