Branding: When does it get to be too much?

I was at the New Jersey Devils versus New York Ranger game in January, held at Continental Airlines Arena (one of the first stadiums to have a company’s name slapped on it), when a penalty was called on the Rangers. Now, for all those that have grown up in New Jersey and know even the tiniest thing about hockey, you know that the Rangers and Devils have had a long-standing feud and that the games are always really entertaining and heated, and that’s to say nothing about what it is always like on the ice! So, there are bound to be penalties, especially in a tight game when winning means so much (the score was Devils 1, Rangers 0. Being a Devils fan, I was a very happy woman at the time!). One of the Rangers players was called for a simple hooking penalty, which is in my opinion the most common penalty called in all of the NHL, and he was sent off to the penalty box. Just as play resumed, the arena’s announcer came on and said, “Now it’s time for a PSE&G POWERPLAY!” I looked up, and saw that on all of the screens that surround the rink, PSE&G was splashed everywhere. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! They sold the rights to a power play! How is that possible? I know that the team isn’t desperate for money! And attendance hasn’t been that bad this season! I still can’t believe it. The team had sold the rights to a power play to New Jersey’s only power provider.

Plus, when the Devils move to Newark for the next season, (a bad move according to all of the fans I have spoken to about it, and almost all are saying that they won’t go to Newark. There’s not going to be any tailgating, which has become quite a ritual for many people, including my father, his friends, and I, especially during the playoff or even the Stanley Cup games. The last playoff game I went to was years ago, but I’ll never forget having this beautiful flank steak that my dad cooked, whole live lobster, filet mignon, all of the things you wouldn’t expect to see in a parking lot tailgate. It’s a part of the game for many people, and the only way to get ready for a game.) the 2007-2008 season, the stadium will not carry along its original name, “Continental Airlines Arena” where the Devils have played for decades. It will get a new name, “The Prudential Center.” Here’s a piece of the blurb I found on the Devils’ website:

“Devils & Prudential announce naming-rights deal Devils Arena Entertainment, LLC, an affiliate company of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, announced Monday that they have reached a 20-year naming-rights agreement with Prudential Financial, Inc., one of the world's leading financial services companies, for the Prudential Center in downtown Newark” (The Devils and Prudential)

I am sure that the Devils organization made a lot of money off of that deal, especially because it is for 20 years, and they could say that they’re using that money in order to get some better players into the Prudential Center. However, they are already pretty close to the salary cap the NHL now has, and they really don’t need new talent. The team is really strong right now, and they’re playing well together.

Now, New Jersey is talking about selling both the Garden State Parkway, which I drive each day and is in good condition, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Also, they will be selling what is currently the PNC Bank Arts Center, where Monmouth’s graduation ceremonies have been held for the past three years, after the ceremony four years ago was held during a monsoon and they were not able to move it indoors in time, so they went ahead with it. (There wasn’t a whole lot of pomp and circumstance since the honorary speakers said probably four words each, then the students went up, got their diploma, and left, completely soaked. The next year, it was moved to PNC.) The sale will supposedly “net $15 billion, slashing the state debt and boosting nearly depleted funds for state programs said Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, who announced plans to introduce legislation on the proposal Monday” (Gloucester County Times, Feb. 1, 2007, “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion,” by Trish G. Graber, ). If the roads are sold, the contract would be for a maximum of 75 years “and would permit annual toll hikes based on the consumer price index for cars and on the gross domestic product for commercial vehicles” ( “Toll roads plan may add $15 billion”). However, the state doesn’t seem to encourage or demand that the roads be improved under someone else’s ownership, so a company could buy the roads, take the toll profits, and watch the roads disintegrate. Also, the company would own the property alongside of the roadways, so they could feel free to develop that land and add shopping centers, malls, anything they want, no matter what effect these commercial areas would have on the roadway. Can you imagine traveling down the Pfizer Parkway and having to dodge people moving in and out of these shopping areas, especially with the speed limit set at 65mph?

The deal would keep the state police patrolling the roads, but it doesn’t say whether or not the private company could put their own police on the road in addition to the state troopers, with the authority to pull people over and charge them disproportionate rates for a simple, minor moving violation, like a failure to use turn signal or failure to stay to the right. Also, the people who work the tollbooths on both the Parkway and the Turnpike would have two years before they are kicked out into the cold. There is no telling what these private companies could do to the state’s major roadways if the idea of a sale goes through. The last news I read was that the state was already taking bids for the sale, which says to me that any debate being held is just a formality because the powers-that-be in the statehouse have decided that they are going to sell these roads, no matter what anyone says. The state’s only motivation is simply that it would pay down some of the estimated $50 billion dollar debt, and do it in a way that would remove the need for the state to examine its budget and spending to find ways that they are wasting money and adding to that huge debt. When our governor was running for election, he said that he’d be getting rid of the wasteful spending, but it seems that his only plan was to find ways around cutting the illegitimate spending. I think there are a lot of underhanded deals going on in the statehouse, and that the government is trying to find any way to look like they are going to decrease spending and try to lower the excessive property taxes and get rid of all of the double dipping and unjust spending (like spending millions of the department of transportation’s budget to install high-speed impact resistant guardrails on every state roadway, even where there are natural barriers, like trees that they have to clear cut in order to put these guard rails in, no matter the actual frequency of accidents where someone crosses the median on that specific road. They are putting them in throughout the entire length of the parkway, but there’s a ditch that prevents anyone from crossing over throughout the majority of the places where the roadways are close enough to have a possible problem. They still installed the guard rails, no matter what. Those millions could have been much better spent, even if it was just to find ways to cut the budget in places where it could be cut without affecting the state’s residents negatively, like the national budget’s proposed cuts to Medicare, which would leave thousands of chronically ill patients out in the cold. These quick fixes aren’t even really fixes. The people in power in the state will find another way to spend this money to line their own pockets, not to help any of us insignificant taxpayers.

There's just something so wrong with this need to sell anything possible to big companies to get the money, but without requiring that things would improve with their ownership. There needs to be a guarantee that this branding won't make our lives worse.