Harrah's Cherokee Casino wants to put its name on the Asheville Civic Center in a naming-rights offer worth up to $5.75 million.
According to a report by Dillon Davis at the Citizen-Times, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is getting opposition to its bid from Buncombe tourism industry leaders.
Harrah's bid comes in above Chicago-based telecommunications company U.S. Cellular, which offered the city at most a five-year deal worth about $923,000 — or about six times less than the total term value of Harrah's.
U.S. Cellular has been the arena's corporate sponsor since 2011. The arena is owned and operated by the city.
"(Harrah's is) buying affiliation with our community identity and our destination brand," Brown said in a memo provided to the Citizen Times. "But that connection is a two way street that ties Asheville to their national corporate gaming identity — and those characteristics are not positive for any of Asheville’s goals — not as a place to live, go to college, to visit or to locate a business."
I can understand the connection to gambling being a negative when it comes to "living." And I can kind of see the same argument applying to college. Maybe.
I would note, however, there does not appear to be this concern about a negative connotation to Asheville's embrace of other industries that carry negative social stigmas - namely, alcohol. Not to mention the all-but-explicit embrace of illicit drug use.
Choosiness of preferred sins aside, I can understand not wanting to slap a big pro-gambling billboard across the city's convention and music venue. But I don't agree that this branding of the building cannot be "a positive" as a place to visit or locate a business. In fact, many businesses and tourists would see it as a positive.
Further, I think most people understand that naming rights don't automatically "brand a city." I'd submit they rarely do.
But regardless of how the city council eventually rules on this, I think we can all agree that most folks will simply continue calling it the "Civic Center."
Pete's Prep: Monday, April 8, 2019
From the Asheville Citizen-Times: "An oxidized metal that darkened water for days in some parts of the city reached levels potentially harmful to children if it were to be consumed long-term, according to some toxicology experts." It also appears the City didn't follow public communication protocols.
North Carolina leftists say the NCGOP scandal is proof that we need to go back to the old system of using tax dollars to fund campaigns (which, coincidentally, helped ensconce the Democrat Machine in power). Meanwhile, conservative John Hood argues that the more powerful a government is, the more people will attempt to influence it. In other words: If you want to reduce money in politics, reduce the role of government.
Some state Democratic lawmakers want to promise North Carolina's Electoral College votes to the Presidential candidate that receives the most popular votes. Andy Jackson at NC Civitas writes about this dangerous (and un-American) idea.
Over at The Federalist: "...a dozen publications that have predominantly won their Pulitzers during a period when a current or former editor or publisher was serving on the Pulitzer board. In examining the awards won by the 117 large and small publications, it is difficult to determine whether these patterns are sheer coincidence; stray examples of potential bias; simply the law of averages due to the hundreds of entries over time; or perhaps even indication that the judges were truly outstanding leaders during the time they served as judges."