Welcom to the club

This crossed the wires late yesterday afternoon. I found out about it on Deadspin. They have a take on it that you might expect.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels have joined the naming rights club.

A new era has begun for the Cedar Rapids Kernels Baseball Club. The Cedar Rapids Kernels and Dale and Thomas Popcorn announced today a five-year field naming rights partnership. The field at Veterans Memorial Stadium will be named the “Dale and Thomas Popcorn Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium”.

At the press conference held today, Kernels President Tom Barbee officially announced the partnership between Dale and Thomas Popcorn and the Kernels.

Dale and Thomas Popcorn is a gourmet popcorn company based in Englewood, New Jersey that produces popcorn under two brands: Dale and Thomas Popcorn (www.daleandthomas.com) and Popcorn, Indiana (www.popcornindiana.com). The slogan of the company is ‘SHARE SOME’ and this catchy slogan goes beyond the popcorn itself. In fact, it's become a way of life at Dale and Thomas. By creating the ‘SHARE SOME’ Foundation we are hoping to send a widespread message recognizing and promoting the concept of sharing (www.sharesome.org).

Now, why would Deadspin chime in on a Midwest League team going with naming rights? Because frequent target of their jests, Isiah Thomas is the Thomas in the Dale and Thomas Popcorn. That link is to just the first page of their posts on the coach and GM of the New York Knicks.

By the way Kernels, Dale and Thomas Popcorn Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium will probably draw a strongly worded post from Darren Rovell at his Sports Biz Blog about how long and "stupid" it is. So, forget about how that money isn't going into the pockets of an individual owner or corporation. Forget about how that naming rights money is going to help the fan experience and to keep and historic Midwest League club financially strong in Cedar Rapids. Forget about how -- and I'm only guessing here -- you were either contractually obligated to or -- I don't know -- maybe wanted to keep the Veterans Memorial Stadium in the name out of tradition. Just be ready for something a little like this:

I’m always surprised at how nuts people go over the naming rights deals. They say they hate the company that just plastered the corporate name on their stadium. Well, I don’t have any problem with this - it’s just part of capitalist America, right? - unless, that is, the name is really stupid. So now, you probably know where I’m going with this here, the stupidest name on a stadium I’ve ever heard. It was happened because of a merger of sorts. Apparently the folks at the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a minor league baseball team, really wanted to sell the naming rights but they also wanted to keep the name of their old stadium. So they kept Fox Cities Stadium and they sold 10 years worth of naming rights to Time Warner Cable. So the name, earlier this month, became Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. What’s next? Coke Field at the Pepsi Dome?

You kind of get used to it.