Sport

A stadium by any other name . . .

by Seth Gitell

Goodbye FleetCenter, 3Com Park, and United Stadium.

Those names will be gone from the lexicon if Gary Ruskin, director of the Ralph Nader-founded Commercial Alert, has his way. On June 13, Ruskin sent out a plea to sportswriters across the country asking them to stop using corporate names. Selling naming rights is a key way for sports franchises to earn money for new stadiums -- a practice Ruskin laments. "Sportswriters are our last line of defense. I urge you to write as a keeper of the magic that draws us to sports, rather than as -- I must say this -- a corporate shill," Ruskin wrote. "There is no law that says you have to call a sports venue what a big corporation wants you to call it."

Ruskin suggested that sportswriters call the FleetCenter the "New Garden" and refer to the United Center as "New Chicago Stadium." "How many of us can keep straight the corporate names that have no grounding in our minds?" he wrote. "3Com, Qualcomm -- who knows which is which?"

So how do sports mavens react to Ruskin's suggestion? Reached at his desk at the Washington Post, Tony Kornheiser mocked Ruskin's proposal. "When he passes out pamphlets on that, is he going to do that on horseback?" he quipped.

Kornheiser concedes, however, that Ruskin raises a valid issue. "Jack Kent Cooke Arena became FedEx Field. I try to find a way not to mention it. We all have a switch in our heads that we flip when it becomes too idiotic."

Of Ruskin's suggestion about the FleetCenter, though, Kornheiser is less enthusiastic. "You can't call it the `New Garden,' " he says. "It's idiotic."

-- Seth Gitell