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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
I was saddened last month when I heard that Jacobs Field was being renamed “Progressive Field.” Not only is it impossible to make a cool nickname out of Progressive (”The Prog” just sounds pretentious), but another baseball stadium had fallen to the corporate naming powers. This quiz has ten teams that have played in corporate-sponsored stadiums – it’s up to you to figure out which stadium name is bogus.
And while we’re on the topic, would any sports team owners out there be interested in mental_floss Arena?
Comments (15)
Comment
In The Magazine
Error! The Carolina Panthers Stadium in Charlotte, NC is called the Bank of American Stadium. The quiz marked me as wrong… I live in Charlotte and BofA’s headquarters are here, too. It’s definitely the BofA Stadium!
posted by Jill on 2-11-2008 at 10:52 am
Please check several of your answers:
The Blue Jays do play in the Sky Dome,
The Redskins in FedEx
and the Astros did play in Enron before that name was changed.
posted by Steve on 2-11-2008 at 10:58 am
Was your answer ‘Bank of America’ stadium? You’re right about that being the name of the Panters’ stadium, but that isn’t what the quiz asked…
“The ten teams below have all played in stadiums named after corporations. Identify the stadium the team hasn’t played in.”
If you chose ‘Capital One Field’ and were marked wrong, give yourself a bonus 12 points (10 for the question, and 2 for an unexplained scoring error).
posted by Jason on 2-11-2008 at 11:01 am
Mea culpa.
I kin reed, I’s swear!
posted by Jill on 2-11-2008 at 11:05 am
Steve: Please re-read the directions.
posted by Terry on 2-11-2008 at 11:07 am
One more time…
“The ten teams below have all played in stadiums named after corporations. Identify the stadium the team hasn’t played in.”
posted by Jason on 2-11-2008 at 11:08 am
Darn it! I really need to read the directions carefully. I was wondering why I didn’t get anything right.
posted by hifidigitalboy on 2-11-2008 at 12:06 pm
Steve, the Blue Jays DID play in the SkyDome, however, when Rogers Communications bought the building in 2005, they changed the name to the Rogers Centre.
posted by Amy on 2-11-2008 at 12:36 pm
Um, I live in Philly and the Sixers don’t play in Colonial Center (never even heard of it!) they play at the Wachovia Center, which was previously the FU Center (at least you got the fun fact correct!)
posted by Mavis on 2-11-2008 at 12:56 pm
Once again, failure to read directions has resulted in an abysmal score for me on a mentalfloss quiz. I guess I should go back and read when I ask myself why they would be tricky and put the old name of some of the stadiums on there.
posted by Ryan on 2-11-2008 at 1:01 pm
Mavis — Please see comments #3 and #6.
posted by Jason on 2-11-2008 at 1:03 pm
woo 9 out of 10. Didn’t know Allstate had gotten into the naming rights. So sad that there can’t be Kingdomes, Fenways, Yankee Stadium, Candlestick, etc any more. Has to be about the dollar to help pay for the cost of the facility.
posted by K on 2-11-2008 at 3:10 pm
Why is the writer saddened by this? “Jacobs field” was due to Dick Jacobs, a Cleveland businessman who took as much money from Cleveland as he could- Progressive at least employees thousands of Clevelanders! I’m all for it :)
posted by kiki on 2-11-2008 at 4:03 pm
Amy, you’re right, it is the Rogers Centre, but no one calls it that. It’ll always be the Sky Dome.
Corporate sponsors are also taking over our theatres; the Hummingbird Centre (Toronto) has been renamed the Sony Centre. I don’t even recognize it anymore.
posted by K (the other) on 2-11-2008 at 5:07 pm
i’m from cleveland and when i heard about the Jake, i cried a bit. no way i’m calling it the Prog. it’ll always be the Jake to me.
posted by Laura on 2-11-2008 at 7:38 pm