Colin, does that non-disclosure agreement you signed pertain to BigSoccer as well, or is it OK because "no one reads that anyway". :--)
Thanks for the confirmation. It makes sense now why evade6317 gets so butthurt when Sam Cronin's name comes up in any conversation.
It's a sponsorship deal, on both counts. What were you expecting, something catchy? The history of both should have long since told you otherwise. What would be disappointing is if they don't call it the Epicenter. Avaya Epicenter is fine, Avaya Stadium is meh. That said Avaya is a great Silicon Valley company to nab. Anyone who thought we were going to get one of the "sexy" companies like Google or Apple doesn't understand anything. Sexy companies generally don't do unsexy things like sponsor stadiums. Particularly Apple. As for this being a leak, this looks like an Avaya company meeting of some kind. The type that are usually supposed to be company confidential or at least company specific.
It's a five billion dollar tech company and it's local; what more could you want? As far as it being Avaya Stadium as opposed to Epicenter, they could just call it The Epicenter at Avaya Stadium. Not the tidiest moniker but I can see that happening.
Are you trying to claim a victory of some kind? That's cute. Very top shelf bringing in family members like that too. Bravo.
Hence the need to get their name on something... I've no clue what they do either, but a company with a known public profile doesn't really need to name anything after themselves.
I was just using that. While this info was leaking out and you were posting this pic, I was on a conference call. Mobile Infantry made Avaya the company it is today.
You have never heard of Avaya? Well that brings up 2 interesting points... First, this is why someone does a naming sponsorship in the first place: to get name recognition. If you had never heard of Avaya before, now you will have heard of them. This is why folks like Apple or Google do not do these things. They don't really need more name recognition. Secondly, it is surprising that a company as "old" and established and as large as Avaya is unknown to many. Have you every heard of AT&T or Western Electric? Western Electric was the huge manufacturing arm of AT&T for a century or so and was spun out from the "Mother Ship" in the huge breakup of AT&T and the Bell System in the 90's. Western Electric renamed itself "Lucent" and then, in 2000, the Enterprise telephone division (PBX's and Unified Communications) spun out from Lucent to become Avaya. It is a very large company (that, apparently, you have never heard of) with about 17,000 employees and does about $4.5B in revenue annually. They have sponsored Soccer before and will be an excellent partner for the Epicenter (if this is verified).
Indeed. Nobody asked for or expected HP to call the "HP Pavillion" the Shark Tank. But that's what everbody called it anyway (and still do even though it is now the SAP Center). Our Stadium will be called the Epicenter by everyone (I hope) regardless of who has the naming rights.
Yep. Just like nobody ever called Candlestick Park 3Com or Monster.com Park. Even if it's not officially the Epicenter at the start it'll end up that way by sheer force of the fan's will.
I mean really, it doesn't need to be officially called the epicenter to be known as that. People always called the 49ers old stadium Candlestick Park, no matter what it's official name was, and people still call the Sharks stadium the Shark Tank. This is good news, people! It's a big company, it's local, and it's not a pyramid scheme! Sure, Google would have been better, but this is still a good thing! EDIT: beaten to the punch by LVMLS
Yeah the "Shark Tank" is a good example of this. San Jose Arena, Compaq Center, HP Pavilion, SAP Center... it's always been the Shark Tank. Candlestick isn't quite the same thing since it was an old actual stadium name that everyone just continued using. Same principle continues to apply to the Oakland Coliseum or The Coliseum... no one has ever called it Network Associates, McAfee, Overstock.com, or O.co Coliseum unless they were being paid to do so.
As I stated, I know what Avaya is now, and have apparently been using Avaya in my office for years, never bothered to pay attention to the company name on my office speakerphones - sounds strange, but I have more important things to worry about.
Not mad. Cute try Is this for all the times I made you run away with your tail between your legs like in the Mark Watson thread, Landon thread, JBP thread, or the numerous other times I made you disappear? I can post links if you forgot.