We pay for these ballparks; why do they get to name them?

Thursday, February 16, 2012

"Naming rights" started out innocently enough.
A huge business decides that it will get huger if its name adorns a ballpark.
So we have PNC Park and Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
Now, we have Peoples National Gas Park in Altoona, where once stood the Blair County Ballpark. Not one brick has been changed, of course, but the Curve, a Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league baseball franchise, will get the money paid by Peoples National Gas.
That raises two questions.
The first question is why does the ballclub get the money when a state grant paid the cost of rebuilding the playing surface?
If a venue's name gives bragging rights to a private business, then that business, and not government, ought to pay the upkeep, in cooperation with the sports entity playing its games there.
That's the answer to the first question.
The second question is why does a business that is not a totally private entity, but rather a regulated public utility, get to spend its ratepayers' money on something so dubious as naming rights to a baseball stadium that is in use at most only half of each year?
Shouldn't the Public Utility Commission take due note that those of us in this area cannot buy gas directly from Peoples National Gas, because Peoples National Gas does not run its distribution pipelines into this area? Shouldn't the PUC also note that, throughout most of its service area, Peoples National Gas is a de facto monopoly for those who wish to use natural gas? Yes, there is some value to advertising by a public utility, e.g., "Use natural gas, not unnatural gas!" Or electricity or coal or a nuclear reactor in the basement, or a wood-burning furnace in the yard.
But there is no value to saying "Use Peoples natural gas and not Aliens natural gas!"
We don't dislike advertising. In fact, we love it - in its place. Our newspapers exist because of advertising. Advertising pays about three-quarters of our business expenses, including payroll for our staff.
We accept advertising that meets legal requirements and our own ideas of appropriateness and propriety, whether we agree with its message or not. We even accept advertising from (Horrors!) Democrats - and Republicans, too!
We do, however, think it is morally questionable that the Pennsylvania Lottery, established as an alternative to the Mafia-run "numbers game," entices people into gambling that can be addictive via splashy ads. And we think it is also questionable as the best use of captive ratepayers' money, to have a public utility spend megabucks for naming rights to a ballpark.
Now, maybe that is OK. The announcement did not send Altoonans into open revolt.
But we think the topic ought to be discussed this year as candidates for the state Legislature seek our votes, because the Legislature informs the Public Utility Commission.
If it were up to us, we would say, in mangling maladroit mimicing of Job, "Thus far shall you come, but no farther; and here shall your proud names be estoppeled."
If that isn't clear, we offer this dictionary definition of "estoppel:" The principle that precludes a person from asserting something contrary to what is implied by a previous action or statement of that person or by a previous pertinent judicial determination.
That helps a lot, doesn't it?
- Denny Bonavita