Personally I don't care what the field is called as long as UK mostly plays good football in it.
Are you angry over the name change?
- Thread starter screwduke1
- Start date
I wish it was a national company and not some regional grocer. It just sounds stupid.
Kroger is the largest grocery chain in the country, not everywhere but coast to coast. They don't use the Kroger name on all stores as they kept names of chains they bought up in various places. But you'll find Kroger labeled stuff in those stores.
Got too many things on my plate these days to get "mad"
That being said, "Kroger Field" is uber lame, makes us look like a laughingstock in the SEC. Do you think UT would ever rename Neyland Stadium, or Alabama rename Bryant-Denny Stadium?
Besides, UKAA just gets a butt load of money every year from the SEC Network . . . do we really need the money that bad???
That being said, "Kroger Field" is uber lame, makes us look like a laughingstock in the SEC. Do you think UT would ever rename Neyland Stadium, or Alabama rename Bryant-Denny Stadium?
Besides, UKAA just gets a butt load of money every year from the SEC Network . . . do we really need the money that bad???
While it's not the coolest name - I really don't understand all the negativity towards it.
Only had a vague sense of this before visiting a Fred Meyer in Wasilla, Alaska and discovering my Kroger loyalty number was still going to score fuel points and trigger discounts. Look at all the grocery store brands shown on a prescription bag... all the Kroger Co..
Yes, I'm pissed. Make that damned pissed. I'm pissed Newton's name is still associated with the facility and Jerry Claiborne's isn't.
Yeah, because commonwealth stadium is really a palace of football along the likes of Neyland and BDS.
The name change I can live with but that horrible new wildcat logo needs to go
Not mad at name change but mad at Mitch's lame explanation in the HL Q&A session to the question of why Rupp wouldn't have a name change:
Correct Answer would've been:" We're just a tenant. We don't have naming rights on a city owned arena"
Answer idiot Mitch gave: "oh we don't wanna do that. Billy Joe Wildcat McBaskeyball would crap his dungarees and burn down the athletic office. Don't wanna go messin with the sacred grounds---now let's go Krogering!!"
Dumbass
Correct Answer would've been:" We're just a tenant. We don't have naming rights on a city owned arena"
Answer idiot Mitch gave: "oh we don't wanna do that. Billy Joe Wildcat McBaskeyball would crap his dungarees and burn down the athletic office. Don't wanna go messin with the sacred grounds---now let's go Krogering!!"
Dumbass
Only mad that cm's name was left being involved with it!! PO'D!
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Kroger is 17th on the Fortune 500 list. They are basically everywhere except the Northeast and part of the upper Mid-west.
http://beta.fortune.com/fortune500/list
Live and learn.Kroger is 17th on the Fortune 500 list. They are basically everywhere except the Northeast and part of the upper Mid-west.
http://beta.fortune.com/fortune500/list
Not mad - - just confused by the branding mistake. There is nothing special at all about Kroger.
Kroger negotiated the rights with JMI. UK sold the naming rights to JMI three years ago as part of the massive media deal they struck.
We tend to forget - KY did not name it - JMI Sports who paid us 212 MILLION BAZILLION DOLLARS to handle all aspects of Media for UK Athletics is who did it.
Now - I wish Alltech would have been choice or friggin' West 6th Brewery or something cooler than the (as you said and I agree- Uber Lame) - but it is what it is and we are one of the very few collegiate teams to have done so and therefore, just like deal with JMI, at the forefront of this process.
Papa Johns Stadium - they get 400 k year for 30 years - ours went for what - like 1.85 mill for 12....
And as money slows down from this initial years of CRAZY SEC Network money - this will become more of a thing that happens on a regular basis for Colleges.
Here is a list of colleges who sold naming rights - http://businessofcollegesports.com/2011/06/21/naming-rights-on-college-stadiums-and-arenas/
http://businessofcollegesports.com/2011/06/21/naming-rights-on-college-stadiums-and-arenas/
Amen.
"Kroger Field" is absolutely pathetic sounding. That being said, it is not the addition of "Kroger" that upsets me.....it is simply tossing out the "Commonwealth Stadium" part like hot garbage. The stadium had been called that name for 44 years since it opened........you just don't toss that aside.
We should have negotiated a better deal......they can sell the naming rights to anyone they want, but Commonwealth Stadium has to stay in the name, simple - JMI wouldn't have balked.
"Kroger presents Commonwealth Stadium" or "Kroger Field at Commonwealth Stadium (and get rid of the CM Newton) would have been fine.
Love the partnership with Kroger. Will help spread the UK brand all over in essential markets and locations ! I had been critical of UK for not forging corporate relationships. Forced the advertising money and help from the Bourbon and beer industries away years ago on a shortsighted grandstand move imho so I am happy to see UK with a quality corporate sponsor who has an industry that touches so many people all over this region. Valuable asset.
How do you know JMI wouldn't have balked? Were you in the negotiations? Maybe it was a concession UK had to make in order to get something they found more valuable than Commonwealth's name.
As a matter of fact, yes.....I have been involved in some negotiations of that size. You lay down some "non-starters" from the outset and go from there; generally a word or two is not a deal-breaker.
The name is abysmal and the rest of conference is laughing at us; this WILL get used against us in recruiting. How effective will such a tact be remains to be seen, but if I was really close between two schools and one had a stadium named "Neyland" or Jordan-Hare" or "Williams-Brice" and then another named........"Kroger Field" ......apples to apples? I am NOT going to play at Kroger Field that literally has Kroger logos on it - what a joke.
You may laugh, but decisions get made on thinner slices.
Take Newton off. Don't add Claiborne. I don't think UK has had a football coach worthy of naming a stadium after.
Good for you for negotiating. I spent nearly a decade negotiating contracts as well. I understand how that works. Did you ever think that maybe UK didn't find the name "Commonwealth Stadium" valuable enough to risk a 9-figure payday?
The UKAA already generates $120M a year. Will $121.5M a year get us to the SEC championship game in Atlanta?
If you are referring to the $1M+ a year that Kroger is paying for the naming rights, that is a deal between Kroger and JMI (UK media partner). UK and JMI came to a new agreement several years ago, which had Commonwealth naming rights in the agreement, worth $210M over 15 years and came with a $29M signing bonus. This money helped pay for many things, including the new football training facility.
I don't know how much UK higher-ups valued the name "Commonwealth", but if giving up that name was part of what got us the money to build that new, state-of-the-art training facility for the football team, I think it's well worth it in terms of football recruiting and performance.
People will complain (people always complain), but in a year or two this practice will be far more common and we will all know Kroger Field as "the K" or some other nickname or just call it Commonwealth. And I bet I barely notice the Kroger logo's on the field by the third home game of the year (yes, I'll be at all of them).
Not mad... I like the sense of humor board fans have had over the matter... But I do have a question that is related maybe?
Can anyone remember the last time UK's Board of Trustee's/Athletics Committee ever vetoed an idea put before them?.... Why have them if all they do is rubber stamp everything the AD tosses before them?
Can anyone remember the last time UK's Board of Trustee's/Athletics Committee ever vetoed an idea put before them?.... Why have them if all they do is rubber stamp everything the AD tosses before them?
