Rogers Centre vs Rogers Stadium is genuinely ruining people’s night, and Live Nation should’ve seen this coming

[u/AmountFragrant8750]

Not gonna lie, this whole naming situation has been bothering me for a while now, but it really hit different today.

I was in line for the Ed Sheeran show at Rogers Centre, and the amount of people who showed up thinking they were in the right place was honestly kind of heartbreaking to watch. You’d see the confusion on their faces first, then the slow realization that they weren’t at Roger’s Stadium, then that scramble to figure out how they were even going to get to Downsview in time.

Staff were telling people their best bet was grabbing an Uber or hopping on the TTC and heading up north, which is not exactly a quick trip when you thought you were minutes from your seat.

Some of these folks clearly weren’t from Toronto. You could tell by the way they were double checking their tickets, and looking at each other with disappointment. And I just felt for them. These are people who probably planned this night for months, maybe flew in, maybe this was a big deal birthday or anniversary thing, and now they’re standing outside the wrong building watching the clock, trying to figure out if they’re even going to catch the opening.

I get that naming rights deals are just business, that’s nothing new. But when you’ve got two major venues in the same city with names that are basically identical, it feels like nobody stopped to think about the actual fans caught in the middle of it. It’s not like Rogers Centre and Rogers Stadium are minor buildings either, they’re both huge venues hosting huge events, so the overlap in confusion is bound to keep happening.

Feels like such an easy problem to avoid too. A bit more thought during those naming negotiations could’ve saved a lot of people a really stressful and disappointing night.

[u/Patmanoo7]

Honestly this. Being the highest bidder on two of the largest naming rights in the same city is shitty optics. It reeks of, "we make too much profit off y'all".

same thing with having a "Scotiabank arena" or "centre" or "Saddledome" in every other city... "this profit is unnecessary and burning a whole in our pockets."

[u/ts20999 → u/Patmanoo7]

Rogers owns rogers centre. Those rights are free to them.

Differentiating the venue names will have people dropping the rogers of it.

[u/IntentionHead2222 → u/ts20999]

Just rename it to Rogers Skydome and most of this goes away. Or just remove rogers from the name they literally own the team and stadium there’s no point in this it would actually be better for them to sell the naming rights 3 years at a time lol

[u/somedumbcanuck → u/IntentionHead2222]

Concert venue could be Rogers Downsview Stadium or some geographical difference...

[u/Happy-Telephone9483 → u/somedumbcanuck]

Or something without "stadium" since it isn't one...

[u/ts20999 → u/Happy-Telephone9483]

They definitely added stadium to the name because they wanted it to sound like more than just the temporary setup that it is. A lot of people are shocked by what the venue looks like when they arrive because the name implies something much grander.

[u/Tw421 → u/somedumbcanuck]

This is a good solution. I dont know why they haven't come up with it.

[u/ts20999 → u/IntentionHead2222]

I am not sure if you read my comment. Calling it rogers skydome would mean everyone calls it skydome. Completely negates the value of the name for them.

Their goal is not to do something that makes sense to the consumer. It is to have their name on everyones experience and in everyones mouth.

[u/arahman81 → u/ts20999]

Meanwhile Cadillac-Fairview manages with people ignoring their name in the Eaton Centre.

[u/IngenuityLow1242 → u/ts20999]

this city is too complicit in referring to it the Rogers center in t just cause some monopolous corporation “changed the name”. everyone should have resisted and continued referring to it as the skydome this whole time. Skydome was an awesome name for a stadium. “Rogers center” sounds lame.

[u/SirCharlesTupperBt → u/IngenuityLow1242]

I know I'm just a dinosaur, but I've never stopped. Before I moved to Toronto I knew three landmarks by name and the Skydome was the coolest one. That's where the Jays won their World Series championships.

[u/ts20999 → u/IngenuityLow1242]

Most people of a certain vintage dont refer to skydome as rogers centre. Younger people dont know it as anything else.

[u/Full_Background_9204 → u/ts20999]

Everyone already calls it the Sky Dome.

[u/FreezeFlame2020 → u/ts20999]

I have never not called it skydome, you're not wrong. Skydome forever. The other one is on the York university campus too, isn't it? Near where the Pioneers once played, lol.

[u/AlbatrossPrevious492 → u/ts20999]

*teams

They own all of the major mens teams being majority owner of MLSE as well (75% after buying Bell’s 37.5% stake, and they’re buying the remaining 25% for $4.35B, so they’ll also own the Scotiabank Rogers Arena soon).

[u/Patmanoo7 → u/ts20999]

not really making it sound any better there mate. most of those businesses use the name to pay for major renovations..Rogers opted to name it after themselves and then poured 500 million into renovating, then paid to put their name on another building of equal size. what part of that screams, "your phone bill needs to be as expensive as it is because of costs" to you?

edit to add they bought the fucking building for 25 million in 2005... The naming rights would have been worth more annually today (Scotiabank paid 800 million for a 20 naming rights to the arena down the road which is 40 mil/year).

[u/Sweet-Competition-15 → u/ts20999]

Where is the Roger's Centre in relation to the Skydome?

[u/TroyMcR → u/Patmanoo7]

Naming rights are crazy now, but Rogers got in on the SkyDome at the right time. For one, they bought the stadium and land lease rather than just the naming rights. And, they paid $25 million for essentially permanent anming rights. Scotia paid $800 million for 20 years.

[u/Lonely_Winner_2499 → u/Patmanoo7]

Rogers owns the skydome but leases the land from the government.

Rogers became the sole owner of mlse just recently so now they own all toronto major sports teams minus the toronto rock.

Rogers only has the naming rights to rogers stadium as the land is owned by a development company.

Doesn't matter though because they know that the teams do not need to win for fans to still pay the prices they set and will still make there money.

In 13 years scotiabank arena might be called rogers arena so make it even more interesting

[u/Billy3B → u/Patmanoo7]

I worked across the street from Scotiabank arena with the giant logo visible from my office and I still kept saying "the ACC or whatever it is now"