Naming
In 1957, before the arena was opened, the under-construction building was officially known as the Civic Auditorium Amphitheater. By 1961, when it opened, Pittsburgh sign makers had decided that Civic Arena fit better on street signs, and the new, shorter name stuck. Still though, for the few years after it opened, it was sometimes referred to as the Civic Auditorium.
In the early days, The Pittsburgh Dome was also popular name choice, but nothing came of it.
In April 1988, city Councilman Mark Pollock proposed renaming it the Richard S. Caliguiri Arena, after the city's popular mayor who was diagnosed with amyloidosis. Caliguiri died a month later, and nothing came of this name, either.
Allegheny County Commissioner Pete Flaherty believed that officially renaming the arena The Igloo would bring marketing potential in 1992. Again, the Civic Arena name stayed.
In 1997, the Penguins sold naming rights to Allegheny Energy for $5 million, which would've renamed the arena Allegheny Energy Dome. However, the Penguins did not own the building nor its naming rights - the Sports Commission of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County did, and the deal fell through.
But, by 1999, this had changed. When Mario Lemieux bought the Penguins out of bankruptcy, the naming rights were also awarded to him. They then sold the rights to Mellon Financial for $18 million, and the arena was finally renamed Mellon Arena.
The Mellon Arena name was let to expire on August 1, 2010, with the building now vacant and the Penguins moving to the new Consol Energy Center across the street. The closed building officially became the Civic Arena again.
Read more about this topic: Civic Arena (Pittsburgh)
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)