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With this place comes a new sense of name
© St. Petersburg Times The rule was unwritten as far as I know, but real: For years, reporters weren't allowed to say we were from the St. Pete Times. St. Pete with its last couple of syllables missing sounded undignified, unprofessional. We reporters were to be professional and patient, as dutiful, honorable and thorough as Scouts. We had to say we worked for the St. Petersburg Times, a newspaper that was dignified, resolute and always a little above the fray it covered. No, we reporters couldn't call it the St. Pete Times, just as we couldn't so much as take a cup of coffee from somebody we were interviewing. We might be compromised. Well, ding dong, the rule about what to call the paper is dead. You could read all about it in Wednesday's paper. The Times had stepped into the fray. The paper went and bought the naming rights for the Ice Palace in Tampa, one of the most popular music venues in the nation, and the site of the Tampa Bay Lightning's home games. Not only that, but the paper decided to play loosey-goosey with its name. The building will be called the St. Pete Times Forum. For the paper as a business, it is a coup of the highest order. We have been battling the Tampa Tribune on its home territory for the last 15 years. The campaign has sometimes seemed as easy a feat as walking on the ceiling. We've moved offices, run through lots of people, money too. Only of late has it seemed that we've taken root, like a very slow-growing plant. A newspaper has never before bought the naming rights -- the way Tropicana did from the Devil Rays, and Raymond James from the Bucs -- of a big-time stadium. Auctioning off the naming rights is a relatively new phenomenon in the glorious money grab that is professional sports and entertainment. Most newspapers dominate their towns and don't need the name recognition naming rights confer. Tampa is one of the few places with real competition between two papers. Getting the naming rights is another chance for the Times to get a toehold in Tribuneland. But there are immense and important questions associated with the name deal, mainly whether the paper's reporting about the arena and the Lightning will remain as aggressive when its name is on the building and on the tickets. The boss, of course, says yes. "The proof is in the pudding," says Paul Tash, editor and president of the Times. "Our news side is skilled at writing news that complicates the business side." Just how complicated things can be, Tash himself illustrates. I asked him how much the paper paid for the naming rights. As a journalist, I know that's a question he'd want answered. But as a newspaper executive, a businessman, he wouldn't release the figure. He said it was business information that he did not want the Tribune to know. This is the furthest the Times has gone in a deal with any local business, profit or nonprofit. The paper supports the Florida Aquarium, Florida International Museum and the United Way, among others. It has sponsorship arrangements with BayWalk, Centro Ybor and International Plaza. Even these relationships can cause the paper trouble. Andy Barnes, chairman and chief executive officer of the Times, resigned briefly in July from the committee working to woo the Republican National Convention to Tampa when organizers would not make public the records of their plans. Once the records were turned over to reporters, Barnes went back on the committee. Putting the Times' name on the arena raises the stakes for the paper. If the St. Pete Times Forum gets into trouble, or somebody associated with it does, the Times will have to get used to hearing its name mentioned in every story. Our reporters will be expected to work harder and faster to demonstrate to the skeptics that we're not in anybody's pocket. That's not fair, but it, too, is part of the deal. -- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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Times columns today Mary Jo Melone Ernest Hooper Tampa Uncuffed Gary Shelton From the Times Metro desk |
