The city of Los Angeles has been seeking a sponsor for a brand new football stadium. The deal has now been made, and the sponsor will be Farmers Insurance Group. Which means that the proposed name of the new stadium is “Farmer’s Field”. Naturally, the Twitterverse has come up with several jokes about this proposed name.
The new football stadium will be located in the downtown area of Los Angeles. It will be located nearby the Staples Center. The purpose of this stadium is to, hopefully, bring the NFL back to Los Angeles. Right now, LA does not have a football team. Ideally, the new stadium will cause the NFL to be inspired to create a brand new football team to play in the new stadium, or, to relocate an existing team to Los Angeles. If that happens, it could turn out to be the way to revitalize the downtown area, by bringing in a lot of jobs.
It has become normal for sports stadiums, arenas, and theaters to be named, (or renamed), in a way that emphasizes whatever company or corporation sponsors the building. The deal between the Anschutz Entertainment Group and Farmers Insurance Group may be worth as much as $700 million. Naturally, the expectation is that the sponsor, Farmers Insurance Group, would be able to have their name represented in the name of the new stadium. Unless it changes, the proposed name is going to be “Farmer’s Field”.
Ok, yes, the name “Farmer’s Field” does point out that it was sponsored by Farmer’s Insurance Group, and that it is a football field. Right. But… when one thinks of something called “Farmer’s Field”, one usually thinks of the country, wide open spaces, big skies, and rows of corn being blown by the wind. Is that name really going to work well for a stadium located in a city as large as Los Angeles? It’s rather amusing what can happen when Insurance companies, or, any large company, really, decides to sponsor a stadium.
As expected, people are giggling about the name “Farmer’s Field”, both in person, and on the internet. Twitter seems to be the go-to source for finding out what the “wisdom of the crowd” happens to be about any big news topic. There have been a whole lot of comments on Twitter with #farmersfield attached, (which makes it easy to find them, and read them all at once). A lot of people are not digging “Farmer’s Field”.
There are many comments that basically say that “Farmer’s Field” sounds way too rural for the name of a stadium in Los Angeles. There are jokes about needing overalls and a tractor to visit the stadium, and questions about if the new team will be named “The Cows”. The most positive comment might be the one from @KamPashai, who says: “Farmers Field has a nice “Field of Dreams” ring to it. If you build it, they will come…” Let’s hope so!
Image by lite traveler on Flickr