02-19-25 - Footprint Center Logos Being Taken Down At Suns Arena Once Again Highlighting Annoyingly Constant Venue Name Changes

Summary

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Arizona

Episode: Footprint Center Logos Being Taken Down At Suns Arena Once Again Highlighting Annoyingly Constant Venue Name Changes
Release Date: February 19, 2025
Host: John Holmberg
Co-Hosts: Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, Dick Toledo

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Introduction

In the February 19th episode of Holmberg's Morning Sickness on 98 KUPD, host John Holmberg and his co-hosts delve into the recurring frustration surrounding the frequent name changes of major sports venues. The episode centers on the recent removal of the Footprint Center logos at the Suns Arena, sparking a broader conversation about the commercialization of public spaces and the impact on local identity.

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The Removal of Footprint Center Logos

The discussion kicks off with John Holmberg expressing his surprise and annoyance over the abrupt removal of the Footprint Center signage:

• John Holmberg [07:33]: "We have no idea how to. We can't name anything. The Footprint center is going away. They took the sign down yesterday."

Holmberg criticizes the lack of consistency and the seemingly haphazard approach to naming rights, lamenting that the arena is now being referred to as the PHX Arena without any meaningful identity.

---

The Frustration with Constant Venue Name Changes

Brady Bogen and Bret Vesely join Holmberg in highlighting the broader issue of incessant name changes across various venues. They argue that this trend dilutes the connection fans have with their favorite teams and stadiums.

• Bret Vesely [03:11]: "Why can't we...have a better relationship with Lerner and Row Studios. Like, just let Lerner and Row name the damn arena."

Holmberg enumerates previous names the arena has held, emphasizing the instability:

• John Holmberg [03:13]: "America West, US Airways, talking stick. And then nothing for a minute. And then this really."

Brady adds that the frequent changes lead to confusion among fans and diminish the historic significance of the venues.

---

Comparisons with Other Stadiums

The hosts draw parallels with other well-known stadiums that have either maintained their original names or undergone multiple changes without losing their identity.

• John Holmberg [04:23]: "Fenway. I mean, it's always been Fenway Fenway."

• Bret Vesely [16:01]: "That's the same with the Sears Tower. Was it Willis or something? Now everybody in Chicago's like, what is Willis Tower? It's a Sears Tower."

They contrast these examples with the Suns Arena, arguing that iconic names like "Wrigley Field" or "Soldier Field" retain their legacy despite sponsorships, whereas newer names fail to establish the same enduring recognition.

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Suggestions for Naming Conventions

To address the issue, Holmberg and his co-hosts propose several alternatives aimed at preserving local heritage and reducing the frequency of name changes driven by corporate sponsorships.

• John Holmberg [06:53]: "The Gym on Jefferson, sponsored by BuzzRx or the BuzzRx Jim on Jefferson or the progressive Jim on Jefferson. If you just put the word gym."

• Brett Vesely [12:10]: "The Holmberg house. Why not throw my name in the mix?"

They suggest naming venues after prominent local figures or using non-corporate identifiers that can incorporate sponsorships without altering the venue's core identity. Holmberg emphasizes the importance of maintaining a consistent name to foster a stronger emotional connection with fans.

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The Impact on Fan Experience

The conversation shifts to the emotional and cultural implications of these changes. Holmberg shares anecdotes about personal connections to historically named venues and expresses concern that commercialization erodes the fan experience.

• John Holmberg [22:56]: "There's a cooler, more passionate feeling when your stadium isn't a store, when it feels like it's ours."

The hosts argue that consistent and meaningful names enhance the sense of community and legacy, whereas constantly changing names can alienate long-time supporters and disrupt traditions.

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Closing Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Holmberg reinforces the need for a balance between corporate sponsorship and preserving the cultural significance of sports venues. He urges stakeholders to consider the long-term impact of naming decisions on fan loyalty and community identity.

• John Holmberg [33:30]: "We had a chance to honor him while he was alive with something that might have meant something to him. Even if it didn't, it's at least a tip of the cap and a wink."

Overall, the episode serves as a passionate plea for more thoughtful and consistent naming practices that honor both corporate partnerships and the enduring spirit of the communities they represent.

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Notable Quotes

• John Holmberg [03:27]: "But yeah, the whole thing is, like, all these signs. Everything else, it's just, like, stupid. Just call it, like, the Gym on Jefferson or Al McCoy Arena."

• Bret Vesely [27:24]: "I didn't know that. I don't think anybody would know that. Got to go to one of those games."

• John Holmberg [34:20]: "All single thing that had depth and meaning is now a sponsored mess. And you don't think of it. You don't think of like Staples Center."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Holmberg's Morning Sickness effectively captures the hosts' collective frustration with the ephemeral nature of venue naming rights. Through engaging dialogue and relatable examples, Holmberg and his co-hosts advocate for a more sustainable and community-oriented approach to naming major sports arenas, emphasizing the importance of preserving local heritage amidst commercial pressures.

Transcript

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[Brady]

Thought that was funny. You were laughing like a hyena when he said it.

[John Holmberg]

What the hell is wrong with you? Good morning, everybody. Hello there. Welcome to Wednesday. It's 5:45. This is the morning sickness. My name's John. There's Brady, there's Brett. There's big Dick Toledo. And here we go. Another day in paradise. And I mean paradise. It's some reason I saw the weather and I don't know why I looked there. Out of curiosity. I looking at houses on Zillow and Billings.

[Brett]

What were you doing?

[John Holmberg]

No, I'm nothing. I don't know. I was just looking.

[Brady]

Yellowstone effect.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah. No, I don't like Yellowstone. I was just, just looking at Billings. I'm like, what's in Billings? Toledo's brought it up. Montana's always been sort of. It's like my, my fascination for New Hampshire a few years ago I have it for Montana. I don't know. So I was looking and then I was like, what's the weather like there today? Oh, it's like 36 below zero. I'm like, well, Billings is out. I'm not gonna do that. That' There's a.

[Brady]

And then on the way this morning, there's a town in New York just out 300 inches of snow.

[John Holmberg]

I don't even know what that means. It's like another planet. So we are again, that Phoenix open does us no favors in February. They need to play that somewhere around April where it could potentially cook a few people. But man, it is. It is the time that if I lived over in 300 inches of snow or 36 below, I mean, here I am around looking at houses and other places I have no intention of actually moving to. But just looking at, you know, they're looking, oh yeah, you know, they're on. They're trapped in their houses going where else is there to live? And then they see that? It's 88 degrees here next week. They're. Yeah, they're thinking about it. We're gonna get.

[Brett]

My. My cousins in Chicago are bitching degrees.

[John Holmberg]

Of course they are.

[Brett]

Sucks to be ill.

[John Holmberg]

It's terrifying. It's awful. Anyway, just know this. We have no idea how to. We can't name anything. The Footprint center is going away. They took the sign down yesterday. I didn't know this was. It's been the Footprint Center. Downtown is now no longer the Footprint Center. They're now calling it the PHX Arena. And kind of out of the blue, they pulled the Footprint. All the cool Footprint logos, everything off the rooftop, all torn off. It is now just an unnamed arena again. And I look, why can't we. We're bad at naming stuff here. Everything we have has, like, four different names. I don't know if it's that way in every city. It's time we just called it something and then did. Sponsored by, like, just do that. Because if we had to change that, like, every time, we've had a better relationship with Lerner and Row Studios. Like, just let Lerner and Row name the damn arena.

[Brett]

Well, how many is that now? Is it five?

[John Holmberg]

America West, US Airways, talking stick. And then nothing for a minute. And then this really.

[Brady]

The name change. I'm one of America west went to.

[John Holmberg]

Well, yeah, that was a name change, but still, you have to change the name.

[Brady]

And that was. That was.

[Brett]

That changes. Logos and shirts and.

[John Holmberg]

But yeah, the whole thing is, like, all these signs. Everything else, it's just, like, stupid. Just call it, like, the Gym on Jefferson or Al McCoy Arena.

[Brett]

There you go.

[John Holmberg]

There's one.

[Brady]

Or Skyrizi Dome, the Gulf, Big Pharma.

[John Holmberg]

Gulf of Phoenix, everything.

[Brett]

Diana Taurasi Arena.

[John Holmberg]

No, right out. No, they probably would do that. I know they went after a person like we used to. Wrigley Field was a company, but it was also a person. You had, you know, War Memorial Stadium. That was like. We didn't even care if it had a. They just want the money, but you can still get the money. You know, it was Three River Stadium in Pittsburgh, and then it turned into Hines Field, which works for 20. And Heinz is like, I don't want to spend another $190 million. So now it's acrosure, and I don't even know what that means.

[Brett]

Like, Fenway. I mean, it's always been Fenway Fenway.

[John Holmberg]

Because you can't change that.

[Brett]

Wrigley's the same way.

[John Holmberg]

Wrigley is iconic. You can't do that. But all the rest of them are global life, progressive, like. I'm sure an insurance company will hop in on this eventually.

[Brady]

Insurance.

[John Holmberg]

They've got all the money. Airlines used to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Ozempic. Call it the Ozempic Stadium. I'm fine with that. But it needs to be like Al McCoy Arena. And the signs need to be up. McCoy Arena. Brought to my. Blah, blah, blah. Or, you know, it just doesn't make sense that it's a concept. We have to churn this out all the time, and it gets confusing and it looks stupid, and I just. You know, you can't. You can't have memories as a kid going to Heinz and then acresher and then whatever it is after that. And then whatever it is after that.

[Brady]

That was a tough one for Pittsburgh.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, well, Heinz was there. The Heinz is a Pittsburgh thing, Right? Let's add Heinz Ward. It was like such a cool combo, but we wanted it to be Three River Stadium. We wanted it to be the same as the other one. You know, nobody wants to call it a brand name. We. We got slow sucked into that as fans of sports, where it used to be. Our stadiums had Sun Devil Stadium. I don't even know what it's called. Mountain America now.

[Brett]

Yeah.

[John Holmberg]

It's not even called Sun Devil Stadium. Sun Devil Stadium was cool. That's a cool name. Frank Kush Field at Sun Devil Stadium. And now you don't you say Sun Devil Stadium like. No, it's Mountain America. And they get upset. And they paid a lot of money for it. I get it. But we as fans got kind of like, no more cool stuff. You guys are. Now you're gonna mention our product every time you talk about your favorite team.

[Brady]

The shoe.

[John Holmberg]

Well, the horseshoe. The shoe at Ohio State.

[Brady]

The big house.

[John Holmberg]

No possible way the shoe is ever Progressive Stadium.

[Brady]

The only thing that they've done is on the basketball. They build a whole new stand at Schottenstein Center.

[John Holmberg]

Wow.

[Brady]

Their retail family.

[John Holmberg]

They're a Jewish family in Columbus that decided to say big money. I believe this belongs to us anyway. I like that. Gulf of Phoenix and McCoy Arena. That's a must. The McCoy arena is a fantastic name. And finally, give Al McCoy, even though they waited way too goddamn long to do it. You just say, we'll come up with a new plan instead of having, you know, you'll have naming rights still. It'll be McCoy, you know, Progressive Stadium at McCoy Arena.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[John Holmberg]

Progressive arena at McCoy Gym. And just have the signs up.

[Brady]

The Mac House.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah, the Big Mac oh, and then have McDonald's do it. McCoy arena, sponsored by McDonald's. You can't have it, you know, and then McDonald's can be everywhere and all that. We'll. We'll know what it is, but name it after someone prominent. That way it has some sort of tie to the city. That's more than just every three years. They're pulling down the sign and they didn't say why. You know, they're just like, that's enough. And they pulled down Footprint Center. No warning. Nobody had a thing. You know, they're still going to have a relationship with the Suns. And the Suns still looking for new opportunities with Footprint, the company, which is fine. I actually kind of thought it was cool, the Footprint, but it only lasted three years.

[Brett]

Well, think about the shed out there that's had like seven names.

[John Holmberg]

That thing.

[Brett]

Blockbuster, Cricket, Ashley Furniture, home store, whatever it is today.

[John Holmberg]

There's a couple others in there.

[Brady]

Talking Stick.

[Brett]

Talking Stick.

[John Holmberg]

The furniture store was the one where I was like, wow, that's. That's a big buy for them, actually. Home furniture. And we had to say that.

[Brett]

Yeah, the whole thing. You had to say it.

[John Holmberg]

The sucky part is it's our problem here. And you tell people, like, where is it Talking Stick? People will drive to the wrong thing because there's a talking Stick Resort. And then Talking Stick resort amphitheater is 35 miles from it.

[Brett]

Well, I remember there was a show going on at the casino and there was a show going on at the arena, and they were both talking Stick at that point. And people were going to the wrong place, of course.

[Brady]

Yeah, stupid.

[John Holmberg]

We're too stupid. We can't do that kind of stuff. Well, eventually the people will figure it out, but just. You have to stay. It has to stick. Toastino. This guy's got it. He has it on his map. Totino's Pizza rolls, presents, Gulf of America. That kind of stuff. That kind of a name. Yeah, I like calling it the Gym on Jefferson. I think I heard John Hook say that last night. And I'm like, that's solid. The Gym on Jefferson. And the signs all say it and then just litter it with advertising. But we always call it the Gym on Jefferson. And in post game stuff like that, you can have all your pictures, but what they want is everyone to always mention it, but you can mention it. The Gym on Jefferson, sponsored by BuzzRx or the BuzzRx Jim on Jefferson or the progressive Jim on Jefferson. If you just put the word gym. Whatever, whatever. You plop down as the main Sponsor is it. And then us fans can go, oh, heading to the gym on Jefferson. The madhouse on McDowell never had a name. It had nicknames. The Purple palace, the madhouse on McDowell. It was like this. It was great.

[Brett]

Or just the Coliseum.

[John Holmberg]

Veterans Veterans Memorial. We used to name it after heroes. We used to name it after guys who fought and died. Not anymore. Now it's. Yeah, now it's dudes who can't get insurance. So we just throw an insurance company up there. And it's crazy, but again, there it is. It's got to get renamed. If KUPD had to rename itself every time, you know, we had a new sponsor, thank God Lerner and Rose been our sponsor the whole time. But if we had a.

[Brett]

We change.

[John Holmberg]

We change weekly around, we'd be on our knees forever. Anybody throwing the dough, it'd be down there.

[Brett]

Well, I got this one that wants to sponsor the.

[John Holmberg]

The way radio sales works, eventually all of us would have to hit our knees and start going, hey, welcome to 98 KUPD. It's the morning sickness. Live from Hitler Studios. We would have no problem have said we take his money in a heartbeat. Downstairs, sales people don't have boundaries. There's this new guy named Hitler. He runs a. A window shade company, and he'd love to do Hitler's studios. And we think you guys are gonna say that every time. No, we're not. From the Hitler Studios in downtown Phoenix. Oh, boy. These whores will take money for anything. You think it was bad, then some of these radio stations, and luckily we're not one of them, are dying in a vine. And if I was a. If I was a company right now, just for fun, with some money to spend, I would start a little side company called the Third Reich or something like that. And then tell them, I'll give you $250,000 to call it Third Reich Studios. I guarantee you some of these. You know.

[Brett]

Think Susan would let that go?

[John Holmberg]

No, not here. Not yet.

[Brett]

Okay.

[John Holmberg]

Not. Not our.

[Brady]

We look forward to Heil Heating.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah, something silly like that. Where it would be like, thanks for listening to Mix969, the high heating studios.

[Brett]

Oh, God.

[John Holmberg]

But they have to take the money. I'm here with a child rape law firm. I would like to. I'd like to. Sponsors. Dude. Live from the child rape law firm was. I heart. We'll take it. Yeah. Anybody destined right now. Those folks down at Odyssey downtown. The. Oh, you could literally have. The Catholic Church Relocation of priests program brings you live 1015. John Holmberg's morning sickness. The 98 KUPD. Holmberg's morning sickness from the Desert Fox studios. Oh, yeah, just the Auschwitz chimney sweeps. I don't know if you'd have that any. They take money for anything. Radio is horrid. We're not there yet, but there's a couple in town that if you had. If you had enough money, they would look right pat. The isis, you know, indoctrination schools. Anyway, how about the Colangelo Center? Give it kind of a mob vibe.

[Brett]

I'm in.

[John Holmberg]

I like that a lot for that. I mean, there's always.

[Brett]

He's the og. He's want to. Brought it here.

[John Holmberg]

The Holmberg house. Why not throw my name in the mix? Yeah, why not? Because people would be like, oh, that jackass. But it would get a lot of attention. Why would they name it after that?

[Brett]

That sounds like a synagogue.

[John Holmberg]

Son of a. It does. But you sounded a Swedish synagogue. Yes, that's exactly what it sounds like. Not Jewish, but I will play one on the radio. The Frank Caliendo. Oh, there it is. Our normal. The Frank Caliendo heel arena. I like that. I like anything like that. Something that makes us unique rather than just screaming for another one. It says even the Sun's training center over there on 44th is the Verizon Center. I know they've got a sponsor for their training center. The Verizon 5G, whatever warehouse. It's beautiful evidence.

[Brady]

Write that check.

[John Holmberg]

That's kind of gross in a way. You know, name the damn thing something and then sponsor the name. Don't make the name the sponsor.

[Brady]

But like you said, I mean, you know, on the business side of it, if they are getting, you know, whatever $190 million.

[John Holmberg]

But they're not.

[Brady]

No, we're not going to do that.

[John Holmberg]

They make agreements for them. 35 years will be the footprint center. And it's three years. They pulled out because those deals are. They're. They're horrible. Hines Field and Pittsburgh was. I think the. The deal was kind of cute that it ended up being like $57 million naming. Right. And then they added another, like 30 for something else. Well, the new naming rights came up. It was 187 million. And they're like, we're not doing that. It was cute back then. We were Heinz 57. You get. You charged a certain amount of money. It was local. It worked for us for 20 years, and it stayed the whole contract. And then when the renewal came up, they turned to these wonderful people and said, you know, we're gonna. We're gonna knock you stiff or triple what we made. And they're like, no, so you gotta change the name. And it does.

[Brady]

The one that has stayed pretty good even though it change names was, you know, Bank One Ballpark went to Chase.

[John Holmberg]

Right.

[Brady]

They've kept it.

[John Holmberg]

Chase held up for a while.

[Brady]

But we're kind of. I mean, Calangelo was on the. Took it to the next level when they built that stadium back then.

[John Holmberg]

Nobody's gonna put money towards that.

[Brady]

But look how many things that they sponsor. There's the backs of the steps.

[John Holmberg]

Colangelo used to say. Colangelo used to say that if there's a square inch of this doesn't have advertising, we failed. Yeah. They wanted to sponsor seats. They wanted to sponsor the stairs. Every time you took a step, there'd be an ad on the step that you're walking up. That was the goal. And I think fans said no. Like, because that when you remember when Bank One Ballpark first opened, it was nauseatingly advertised. And like. And baseball used to like, the Dodgers fans never get their say. We spend all the money. We do everything. At Dodger Stadium, the whole back wall used to just be blue. They got mad when you started to put players images on the wall. Like, no, that wall stays blue. And they're like, the hell it does. They got them used to that. Like, all right, all right. Keep it Dodger players. And the next thing you know, they flip in like a state farm logo. I see what you did. You made me. It made me get used to seeing stuff on that wall. The big green monster. For years was. But when it first opened, it was W.B. masons. It was huge. Huge logo. It was a billboard.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[John Holmberg]

And it was built for that. And like, well, they're brilliant. They're geniuses. Then they painted it down and everybody got upset. Now they're doing it again, putting ads up.

[Brett]

Wrigley's the same way. Wrigley thing is just a billboard.

[Brady]

And on the outside.

[Brett]

Yeah.

[Brady]

Over and above. That was.

[John Holmberg]

But Wrigley used to be the Wrigley family. Oh, yeah. And then it got so synonymous with just being Wrigley Field. They. They couldn't change the name of it. People would always call it Wrigley Field. It's a. It's going to backfire on.

[Brett]

That's the same with the Sears Tower. Was it Willis or something? Now everybody in Chicago's like, what is Willis Tower? It's a Sears Tower.

[John Holmberg]

Shut up. Yeah. How about the Hacienda Health Care Son's house. Yeah. Because it Is kind of sleepy right now. You're not. You're not wrong. Sons of bitches. The Paul Monch Jr. You know, I like the idea. I like McCoy Arena. Do something for that old son of a. He did. I mean, he was the constant for that team. We've not. We don't even. Again, I've been barking about this. I have no power in the city. Been barking about this for years. Give him a statue. He died. We had a chance to honor him while he was alive with something that might have meant something to him. Even if it didn't, it's at least a tip of the cap and a wink. Now, I never heard that. Al said, I don't want any of that stuff. Maybe he's a guy who says, I don't want that accolade, but I can imagine that he did because he was allowed in the ring of honor. He was a prominent feature for that whole thing. And if you grew up here pretty much like I did, even though, you know, early years now, I came here and Al McCoy was in 1983, the sons announcer. He was the one who introduced me to basketball. McCoy arena is the answer. Or the McCoy gym, whatever. And I don't want McCoy. It's just. You can get the same amount of money fleecing a company if you have an iconic thing and you look like you're, you know, and then just have lerner and rose. McCoy Arena. Progressive Insurance. McCoy Arena. I just hate that we got sucked in as fans going, I don't really like the commercialization of my arena every couple years. Well, so what? Shut up. We need more money. Like, I get it, and I'm all for getting more money, but isn't there a way we as fans can have an arena we can call the same thing over and over to have some sort of a. You're asking me to be passionate, personal, and, like, 100% emotional about your team. And every three years I got this arena that I don't know what it's called anymore, has a new sponsor that. That will sound stupid.

[Brady]

Popeye's House.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah, I'm all in on Popeye's House. The Rah Rah arena is not bad. Yeah, I just. I don't know. It's just like I say, he's a Broncos fan.

[Brett]

He says, hey, it's always Mile High. I don't care what it's called.

[John Holmberg]

Always be Mile High. It's got a name. I don't know right now.

[Brett]

Nobody does.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah, I think it was Progressive Field for a while, but it Is Mile High Stadium. That's just cooler. It's. It's. It's an identifier. It would almost like Brett said, hey, guys. Stop calling me Brett. I am now a Ford Mustang Vesli. Why? Well, I just made a deal with the Ford people, and I don't have a name anymore. I'm just this corporate shell. I'm nothing. I'm like, all right. Ford Mustang Vestly. I suppose that's okay.

[Brett]

Doug Hopkins Arena, Right?

[John Holmberg]

Hey, where's Doug? Yeah, but he'll last a year and there'll be something else. But I like the Al McCoy. The Al McCoy gym. The Jim On. I loved that. Jim on Jefferson. That's not a nickname. If that had a sign, that would be the coolest thing in sports right now. If we went old school. Jim on Jefferson. And it just big lights and then on top, if. When you're flying in the gym on Jefferson. That's cool. Isn't that where that old gym was? Didn't the Suns have, like, a practice place down there before they built the arena? Well, you were. You weren't here yet. Yeah, in the 80s because it was 93 is when they had.

[Brady]

Then they rebooted it and not. I'm not saying that's the location. It was. I think they had that side gym.

[John Holmberg]

They sponsored because before America west was there, it was all just produce warehouses. That's where all the produce went out.

[Brady]

But there was a gym around there, huh?

[John Holmberg]

There was, yeah. There was something down there. I remember that was on Jefferson. That had like a. It might have just been like a ymc.

[Brady]

Yeah, I know there was one there in that.

[John Holmberg]

But I know that when the produce things were. It was massive. It was all of that stuff that you see downtown right now. It used to be just open garage doors of dudes whipping kale and okra into the backs of pickup trucks like my friend Marks and go deliver them to restaurants. That was where you got all the stuff. And it was all of it. There was nothing else down there. There was nothing. There weren't even, like, lights downtown. It was dark. That arena changed the game. So. And who was part of that? Who made that move from the Purple Palace? The Madhouse on McDowell? Right on over there. Al McCoy Pornhub Arena. I'd be for that. Remember when they were going to change the name of the airport and Ashley Madison said, okay, we have money. And they're like, oh, no, not you. And like, but we have money. Like, that is tempting. But if you were. You were about to fly into Ashley Madison for a little while and then they. And then the Pink Taco wanted to do it. And then they're just like, you know what? That was all you guys. Never mind. We're Sky Harbor. The Sky Harbor.

[Brett]

I'm Doug Hopkins. I want to buy your arena.

[John Holmberg]

There it is. As is. Yeah, he'll fix it up and then he'll sell it to somebody dumb. But I love that the press release is like, we've really found that there's a better opportunity with the people at Footprint and the Suns and our relationship can grow. Meanwhile, it never is a good optic to have, you know, cherry pickers go pull letters off of things that just. That always looks like the place is going out of business or a deal was not made. It doesn't. Doesn't seem like progress to tear names off of stuff. But they're trying to sell it. Like, oh, we came up with.

[Brady]

Right. They led with the. The corporate name rather than having a. Yeah. Reputation of this place. You know, Death Valley, it's whorish.

[John Holmberg]

And all. All cities have it now. It's a whorish thing to do. But when you get a. I never heard of whatever Footprint was when they named it, I'm like, I don't know what Footprint is.

[Brett]

I still don't know.

[John Holmberg]

Green company. They're. They're focused on green energy, green resources and trying to. And they're evidently, they're pretty up and up with how they do things. But it was a little bit of a shock that they came in with that name because nobody really knew who they were. Do they have enough money to sustain this? Are we going to change this name again in 3 or. Yes, as it turns out, that was temporary. And then you got to get somebody big. You can't have, you know, you can't have some cruddy thing pop in. You got something forever. Like somebody that doesn't just have a quick buck that names an arena for five minutes and then takes pictures and leaves, which is today's society. But crazy thing, I am the last generation that has stadiums names. You ask young people, they don't care. No, they don't have that connection. That way it's a better connection. I mean, tell anybody. You know, look, there's a cooler, more passionate feeling when your stadium isn't a store, when it feels like it's ours. Morning sickness. The 98 Ku PD. Holmberg's morning sickness. There was something about Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as crappy as that place was, that didn't feel like a whorish nightmare. You know, the Forum in la, it's.

[Brett]

It's kind, it's kind of like you're saying, you know, when we were talking about football and stuff, they don't care about us anymore.

[John Holmberg]

They. They stopped caring about us. Yeah, once. Once somebody said our age group. You know, once somebody said, I'll give you 120 million. I'll give you 120 million. Put my name on this building and don't call it anything else. Okay. And here. And I'm bitching about it, but if you told me that, I'd tattoo it to my face, right? Absolutely. So I get why.

[Brett]

What are you gonna do? You're not gonna go to the games, right?

[John Holmberg]

Right. And eventually if we put a product on the floor, we can call it the, you know, the Knicks Panties Arena.

[Brett]

Oh, I like that. The Mercury brought to you by Knicks.

[John Holmberg]

Patties for when you can't get up because the action's too hot. Piss yourself in Nick's panties. Anywho, it's a thing. But I do like McCoy arena, the gym on Jefferson, the Gulf of Holmberg. I think all that stuff's pretty solid. But don't. They're gonna, you know, all this falls on deaf ears. There's. There's no way that they don't. But you could still get the same amount of money and say, we want to make a unique. You go tell the people at State Farm or whoever's going to do this, we would like to make a unique situation. You know, there's like three American airliners, arenas in the country. There's one in Dallas. I think there's. There's like three of them. There's a couple of United centers. There's one in. I think Miami is American. I think Dallas is American. Chicago's United. There's another United somewhere out there. They're all just.

[Brett]

There's the Delta center and up in.

[John Holmberg]

Salt Lake, and that used to be the Salt palace, the Rose Garden up in Portland. I mean, they were, they were great names that tied you back to the city. You could get shirts. The Rose Garden. It was cool. That doesn't exist anymore. But you know, occasionally a good sponsor will pop up. Bob is. Bob was kind of neat. Bank one ballpark turned into Bob. We changed it into our own thing. And then bank one's like, banks are dying. We better stop.

[Brady]

Sinaloa Stadium. Cartels are throwing them.

[John Holmberg]

Look, if. If they're anything like radio sales people, Sinaloa Stadium is not far fetched. Fentanyl would probably have a chance. We're from the folks at Fentanyl. We are making a killing. Literally. We'd love to name your arena somebody. I don't know. There's somebody local.

[Brady]

Love the mule races. I can make all sorts of promos.

[John Holmberg]

It's discount. We could. We could stuff things in people's asses and run them. They have to do layups with fentanyl in their ass. Is Discount Tire still local? Godaddy tried for a minute. Right. They had. Do we have any local companies that.

[Brady]

Are Singapore Chip soon. You know that.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, that thing out there at the 303. Yeah. Okay. Is in intel. Maybe.

[Brett]

Are they based here or is this.

[John Holmberg]

Just thing in Chandler? That's $7 billion. They're definitely eyeballing us as a big hitter, so. I don't know. I just don't like the thing. Everything goes willy nilly. Find my day. We had crazy names of things. Think about Soldier Field.

[Brett]

Oh yeah.

[John Holmberg]

What's it called now?

[Brett]

Soldier Field.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah, but it's got a sponsor, doesn't it?

[Brett]

I don't think so.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, see, that's Soldier Field. I like that better.

[Brett]

The socks are horrors. I just.

[John Holmberg]

They're socks are the. What's theirs now?

[Brett]

Guaranteed rate.

[John Holmberg]

Guaranteed rate. Field. And it's.

[Brett]

Before that was U S Cellular.

[John Holmberg]

Giant arrows on that stadium.

[Brett]

When they saw the future.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah. Oh, they knew.

[Brett]

And then Sox fans are still calling it commissioner.

[John Holmberg]

It's commissioner.

[Brett]

Yeah.

[John Holmberg]

You know the Brown stadium used to be Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals. The Bengals used to be known as that. I think it was called the box on the river. Everybody remembers it.

[Brady]

Riverfront.

[John Holmberg]

That's right. That's what it was. You're right. That was the box on the riverfront. You're right. I. I misspoke. Not just the river at Wrigley Field. Comiskey Park. It was like there's ties to it. You never. You're not going to see old timey videos back when AI takes over everything and somehow or another all this HD stuff looks like the stuff from the 20s. And you hear that we take you live. The progressive field. It doesn't have any sort of love when you throw a sponsor and those sponsors still get that love later. You watch the old clips of the Diamondbacks and Yankees in 2001. You're at Bank One. Ballpark, you know, they still get their push. I don't even. Is Bank One still a thing?

[Brett]

No. I thought they got bought out chasing.

[John Holmberg]

So it just switched names so they don't really care. But I mean if you looked at like if. If Wells Fargo just bought the naming Rights. And then all this chase stuff, they'd have to erase it.

[Brett]

Well, is it still Wells Fargo arena over there?

[Brady]

I think that's the basketball.

[John Holmberg]

Yeah. Wells Fargo was still there, I think.

[Brett]

Oh, okay.

[John Holmberg]

I think that's still called Wells Fargo arena next to Mountain America Stadium. Yeah, we changed names and it doesn't seem to be. What about Lake Girls Arena? I don't think, like Girls is even that open anymore. I've driven by Lake Girls on accident a couple times. I'm like, is that place closed? There's a van and, like, the lights are on, but I don't know. There's like one girl in there. I think she's just been dancing since 94.

[Brett]

Bourbon Street Stadium.

[John Holmberg]

It's a mainstay. It's something tied to the city. What's tied to Camelback Arena? I don't know. Something tied to the city. A Kokopelli. These Indians have been. You've been crushing it, Wild Horse. And you had it with Talking Stick. I don't know what happened there. We could have gone with that. The stick we had a name for. Eh? Get it back. Indians. What are you doing? When did you lose to Footprint Center? We didn't want to pay those rights. Too expensive. Too much. One of them. You're not too much Wampum. I've seen what you're doing over there at that Talking Stick resort. You guys are killing it.

[Brett]

How much money I lost there exactly?

[John Holmberg]

I've paid for that stadium a couple times. That Holmberg arena actually has some merit if the Indians get back involved because I'm part of that.

[Brady]

Ortega.

[John Holmberg]

Ortega The Chili's?

[Brady]

No. The guy? No. Is it an Ortega?

[John Holmberg]

Yeah.

[Brady]

In Scottsdale.

[John Holmberg]

This is your joke, Brady. I don't know if you have to explain it. Who? Oh, Gilbert. Okay, don't look at me like I'm supposed to figure that nonsense out or take it.

[Brett]

We thought it was Ortega Chili's.

[John Holmberg]

Immediately you say Gilbert Ortega. Now that's the brand. Turquoise. Anyway, so. And it's immediate, like last time the Suns had a game, it was at Footprint Center. They play again on the 27th. No. Phoenix Arena. And they want you to call it PHX arena, which I think sucks. Now there's no sign. There's no nothing. I remember I was in the H and H Ranch, drunk and asleep and half. And I heard. And the big shocking reveal was across the street from the H and H Ranch. I'm watching workers put on neon on top of the arena to spell out footprint. And I'm like, what are they doing. Nobody knew it was called Footprint. They had the signs up that day. Just the one on the. On the marquee was the only one that was like ready to go. First day. And I think that was during the finals. They just named it. It was during the playoffs. I'm like. They didn't even. They just got on it. So we'll see. McCoy Arena.

[Brady]

Everybody do that on a lot of the jerseys too.

[Dick Toledo]

That.

[Brady]

They just do the city abbreviation.

[John Holmberg]

I know the PHX things well.

[Brady]

The 602 house.

[John Holmberg]

I don't want that. Because. What about the 480.

[Brady]

I know.

[John Holmberg]

So they not invited. Yep. Just do phone company just written on your shirt because that's. It's area airport destinations. That's why I loved when Charlotte got in on the. And they did the CLT shirts and. Oh, man.

[Brady]

Selling merch.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, you know what? Those jerseys became elusive. Hard to find. The CLTs were very tough to find. Oh, I loved when they did that. That was an immediate. I almost switched allegiance to the Charlotte team because you. You make giant block letters CLT across my chest and then wink and nod at me. I'm like, I'm in on that. Found it. So we'll come up with something. But it'll be dumb. And the signs will be up in a heartbeat. And I guarantee you this whole PHX arena thing lasts about three weeks before they're rolling in somebody's new dough. And it'll be a dumb company that jumps on board and it'll sound funny for a long time. And then once we get used to it, it'll be something new. McCoy arena forever. And then just sponsor that. The Boston Garden.

[Brett]

Yeah.

[John Holmberg]

I mean, there's. Every single thing that had depth and meaning is now a sponsored mess. And you don't think of it. You don't think of like Staples Center. Even still. That was still kind of a. It's kind of a dopey name. I like to. Is now crypto.com arena. You can't even give it a nickname because you know that's gonna go away. That's nuts. Stupid people. Everybody wants it to strip clubs. Got band aids. I got laid girls. I got the Bush Company. The Alaskan. Alaskan Bush Company. Arena would be great.

[Brett]

Blaze arena for Rico Blaze. Because it's hot in here.

[John Holmberg]

Yes. Name it after a guy in the city. Maybe if it is now McCoy. Somebody else. Rico Blaze, sir. Nuts. A lot.

[Brett]

Arena about Heartbreak Hotel describing this season.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, the. The deep freeze. I don't know. You gotta have something out there. We'll Figure it out. But, yeah, it's just kind of a shocker. Yesterday, the Footprint center is no more. They've torn it down in a day. So. Which tells me that they're not real. They're not in a real good position with Footprint center or the Footprint Company when the flowery PR notice came out. So we love it. They're still partners. Well, then just leave the name up until you find a new one. Oh, hell no. If they're not paying, it's coming down today. Like there was a meeting where somebody goes, all right, I guess we don't have a deal then. And they hired cherry pickers and workers to pull the F, the O, the O, the T, the P, all that came off the day of. So there is not a good relationship there. They just be like, you guys can be Footprint center until we find a new. We'll just keep it up there. You guys have been great. Nope. And if they're still shaking hands, like, we'll make better deals. Nope, Nope. It's the PHX arena.

[Brady]

Had that grace period already. It's like, it's been a year.

[John Holmberg]

They would have announced it. They would have announced it. They would have told us something. They're not that tied to it to where they wouldn't have said, hey, Footprint Center's deal ends on February 18th on a Tuesday in the afternoon and just tearing it down. Nobody knew. They just didn't. They couldn't strike a new deal. And I know that because season ticket renewals start in March. So they're getting ready for everything coming up. This is their end of the year deal over there. So all they're probably. All their buys for next year have to be in by March. All they're like, do we have a. Deals have to be done? And Footprint's like, now we're pulling out of that thing. All right, we'll pull your name off right now. And they did at 2 in the afternoon, which tells me again, they didn't. They didn't know until Yesterday, probably about 10am because otherwise they just had a crew out there. First thing in the morning, they tore the stuff off the roof. It's all gone. It's crazy. And I mean cleaned gone.

[Brett]

ASU is now Desert Financial Arena. It's not Wells Fargo no more.

[John Holmberg]

Oh, really? Really. Okay. I didn't know that. I don't think anybody would know that. Got to go to one of those games. Let's get a Wake Up Song here at the Learner and row studios of 98 KUPD. Give it to us. Good and strong. 585-9-800, and we'll scream it together. It's 98 KUPD. Wake up Arizona's most powerful, powerful rock radio station.