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Offical titles of games?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by schiezainc, Dec 7, 2008.

  1. bob

    bob Member

    I hate the thought of being forced to publicize these commercial ventures, but what about "American Airlines" Arena and "GM" Place and "McAfee" Stadium and "TD Banknorth" Garden? Personally, I have never written TD Banknorth Garden and refer to it simply as the Garden.
     
  2. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    It can get even more confusing -- there might be a sponsor name on the event but if that same sponsor doesn't ante up for airtime, the broadcast could be sold under a different sponsorship. So what fans and media know as the "Beef Jerky 400" could be called the "Ritz Bits 400" on TV. I recall seeing that a couple times with IndyCar races this year.
     
  3. pressmurphy

    pressmurphy Member

    I'm being slightly apples to oranges here, but how would you feel about the dish head on the 6 o'clock news reading the first few grafs of your scoop from today and crediting it just to "the morning paper," since that's how they and many of your readers prefer to refer to the publication?

    On first reference I'd run the full name of the event, minus extraneous bullshit at the end of the title such as "presented by Bumfuck Toyota." If you ain't paying the event folks enough to get your name in front of theirs, then you've definitely got no beef with us not running it at all.
     
  4. Jeremy Goodwin

    Jeremy Goodwin Active Member

    Does AP have a rule on this?

    For their National Finals Rodeo stories they call it the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. But the stories about bowl games didn't say in the FedEx BCS National Championship game. I took out Wrangler because people call it the NFR, despite the PRCA saying its the WNFR.

    I don't recall them specifically naming races in NASCAR stories (agate they do), presumably to avoid sponsors, but I could be wrong. I don't remember editing "Jimmie Johnson led 143 laps including the last 50 to beat Carl Edwards in the Pep Boys 500." It was usually "Johnson beat Edwards at Talladega in the third race of the Chase for the Championship."
     
  5. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Buck, we stray from that thinking all the time when it comes to NASCAR...we have Virginia 500s and Richmond 500s and the like. That's our style; I guess accuracy in this case is in the eye of the beholder. Sorry, ETNIOR....

    And it's the Fiesta Bowl, not the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

    If it helps, I've only been struggling with this since about 1981. Unless you make the (I think wrong) decision to call it, word-for-word, whatever the official name is every single time, it's always going to be an inexact science.
     
  6. That's the official name of the building. Unless it's your paper's style, you've got to include the corporate name. TD Banknorth Garden is the only correct way to write it, unless your paper decides otherwise.

    For bowls, never write the title sponsor unless there's a gun pointed at your head. If it's the name of the bowl, that's different. I will never call the Peach Bowl anything but the Peach Bowl, but if I'm writing a story and reference the game, it's the Chick-fil-A Bowl. But if I'm referencing the Orange Bowl, I don't call it the FedEx Orange Bowl. It's not the official name of the bowl.
     
  7. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Well, nighthawk, the problem is -- yes it is the "official" name of the bowl. And your post just emphasizes how screwed up the whole thing is when trying to get a set style. The problem I've always had is that events that name themselves so they can be nothing else -- same with names of buildings -- get their company names published, while other with an alternative (Tostitos Fiesta Bowl) do not.
     
  8. The same is true with PNC Park, and Minute Maid Stadium, Tropicana Field, Lane Stadium (Worsham Field) and Joan C. Edwards Stadium... Those - just like the Fed Ex Orange Bowl - are the "official" names and should be referred to as such.


    Just the facts.
     
  9. And that's why they do it. But as long as the game is called the Fiesta Bowl or the Orange Bowl or the Alamo Bowl, I will not call it anything else in print.
     
  10. So do you use The Pennsylvania State University or Penn State?
     
  11. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    I'm torn.

    I understand the full, proper name may be the ShopRite Kotex Toledo Open presented by DuPont and it can be changed after the first reference.

    I also hate the idea of putting in a six- or seven-word title as a sponsor shill no matter how proper it is.

    FedEx Orange Bowl isn't as slimy, maybe because it only has one name. Chik-Fil-A got it right a few years ago when it dropped Peach, just like Coca-Cola did with the World 600. Lose the traditional name, insert corporate name only and it has to be called that. Using "World 600" is incorrect because there is no such event.

    It still sucks. "Presented by" may be the worst of all.
     
  12. Are they not the Penn State Nittany Lions?
     
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