A New Name for the Asheville Civic Center?

aville_civic_center.jpgMayor Terry Bellamy and U.S. Cellular just announced a plan to sell naming rights for the Asheville Civic Center to U.S. Cellular. The plan is to rename it the U.S. Cellular Center, and the price is something like $1.3 milllion over 8 years.

It’s clear the deal has already been made, and the vote at the next City Council meeting is just a formality.

This means “U.S. Cellular” will be mentioned countless times on TV, radio, and in the newspapers every time a concert or event comes to our Civic Center.

Advertising like this is worth a lot. Competitive bids would tell us
how much that’s worth, but there were no bids — just a single, secret
deal.

If we do want to rename the Civic Center, shouldn’t we have
the disscussion first and a decision later, instead of the other way
around?

Maybe we don’t want to sell the naming rights. Maybe we’d
like to keep the old name. Maybe we’d rather call it the Jeff Bowen
Center. Nobody’s asked.

And if we do sell the naming rights, shouldn’t they go to the highest bidder in a transparent way?

Lame Duck Council to Decide

The
timing of the vote is extraordinary: it will be held at the only
council meeting after the election and before the new council takes
office.

We couldn’t discuss this during the election because we
weren’t told this plan was in the works. Jan Davis ran his campaign
largely around his work on the Civic Center, never mentioning that this
renaming was to occur just days after the election.

Bill Russell
and Brownie Newman, two Council members who will be voting on this
issue, won’t be facing the voters again. After all, Mayor Bellamy won’t
be running for mayor again, but if she runs for higher office (as she
indicated she might), she will need corporate contributions to her
campaign.

Presumably Esther Manheimer, Gordon Smith and Cecil
Bothwell want to win re-election, so perhaps they’ll listen to residents
before they decide? And what’s the rush?

The people of Asheville,
the 99%, built and paid for this Civic Center. Now they’re being told
it should be named for the 1%; for a company that has nothing to do with
it. It’s not exactly like giving your kid the last name of the rich
family across town, but it’s close. The kindest interpretation we can
put on this is that City staff made a mistake.

Council needs to
vote NO on this, and then negotiate a deal in sunlight. They should vote
to continue; request bids; and hold discussions to see if residents
want to proceed. If (and only if) the reaction is positive, they should
get their best bid and then move forward.

Please contact City Council to let them know how you feel about this.

Asheville PARC, People Advocating Real Conservancy. Contact us [email protected]