This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
United Airlines is spending more than $70 million to buy the naming rights to the Memorial Coliseum, reports Sports Business Daily. At $4.7 million per year over 15 years, it's slated to be the richest naming-rights deal among college football stadiums.
Some of you (most likely USC Trojans fans) are preparing to toss yourself in front of a charging bus, but wait, there's apparently a good side to this: the money is expected to offset the $270 million in renovations that USC plans on doing for the stadium, said school officials. (Whatever happened to that $6 billion that the school raised?)
It's currently unknown what the new name will be (and yes, there will be a new name, unless United thought it was a good idea to spend $70 million on nothing). As reported at the L.A. Times, USC would have the right to veto any name it doesn't like, and officials say that keeping the name "Memorial Coliseum" somewhere in there will be a priority. Which is all to say that United will be barred from from re-naming the Coliseum as We're Not All That Bad Coliseum, or We DARE You To Fly Spirit Airlines Stadium.
In case you haven't been checking the news, United has been mired in a PR nightmare lately, especially after one of their customers was pulled from his seat, dragged through the floor, and had his face bloodied in the process. And hey, just this week they got into another jam when they charged a national guardsman (who was returning from a 21-month deployment in Afghanistan) $200 for an overweight bag, reports Fox 7 Austin. Oof.
