Continental Drops Meadowlands Arena Naming Rights

[Matt Molnar]

The Continental Airlines Arena, formerly known as the Brendan Byrne Arena, will from now on be known as IZOD Center. :roll:

[cancidas]

wtf is IZOD?

[PhilDernerJr]

I think stadiums are a part of history for the cities that they belong in. I just hate that their very names are so often an advertisement in itself.

If NYCA ever bought a stadium, we wouldn't have it in the name.

[T-Bird76]

wtf is IZOD?

Izod is a brand of clothing you'd see Nick V wear.

[Matt Molnar]

wtf is IZOD?
IZOD is a large clothing manufacturer. They're best known for the alligator polo shirts they made through the early 90s via a licensing deal they had with Lacoste. Lacoste canceled the license when Izod started making crappy quality shirts. Lacoste now makes the alligator shirts themselves, and somehow Izod has survived without any neat marketing icon. They're paying $1.4 million a year for the first two years, then $750K after the Nets move to Brooklyn...not a bad deal for getting your name mentioned on a couple dozen sportscasts every day.

And it's better than ROCAWEAR CENTER (being that Jay-Z is a co-owner of the Nets).

[Mateo]

I always thought Izod was an alligator and Lacoste was a crocodile, and they just happened to look similar! Hmmph. They should have given it back to Byrne (which is what I call the building, anyway).

[Nonstop2AUH]

Even though I understand the economic reasons for selling naming rights, I find the increased "branding" of everything to be a bit much, and in this case I didn't even know Izod was still in business - which I guess is sort of the point here. Although even if they got a bargain, I'm not quite sure naming an arena whose main residents are abandoning it sends the message that your brand is hip and relevant.