Western was homegrown, synonymous with Salt Lake City. Then one day, Western became Delta, and Delta served the city well. The Atlanta-based airline established a hub here. Its image was so platinum, its net worth so healthy that car dealership king Larry H. Miller teamed with Delta in 1991 for naming rights on the new downtown arena for his Utah Jazz.
For just a flash on Monday, as he announced a new deal to rename the Delta Center, I had hoped Miller might shed some of those public tears we've come to love. In memory of a 15-year partnership with a brand that is simple, a logo that popped straight out of the Greek alphabet and is colored red, white and blue to boot. The association between a fleet of jet planes and an NBA team always meshed nicely. It meant speed, motion, lift.
Today we have the new EnergySolutions Arena, which still stores radioactive nuclear waste in Utah's west desert but whose press packet describes the company benignly as a "national energy services company."
At a news conference in the EnergySolutions Arena (see, I'm onboard already) on Monday, Miller described how ES president Steve Creamer and his people "educated" him about their business. "Any reservations we might have had when we set out on this course are gone," Miller said, adding that he began his schooling in "energy kindergarten" and has graduated to "energy 101."
Miller said he negotiated in good faith to keep Delta, and that the airline's bankruptcy status wasn't really the issue. Rather, he said, it was more about the company "being distracted by weightier issues" - presumably in fighting a hostile takeover bid by US Airways.
Nostalgia and city pride count for nothing anymore, and the days of stadiums named for political heroes and unique geological phenomena vanished long ago. No more Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome or Three Rivers Stadium. This whole announcement could have been boiled down to one sentence: Everything is for sale.
Former U.S. senator and pilot Jake Garn told me as a guy who loves flight, he always liked the Delta Center name. But he compares the branding change to the LDS Church's downtown makeover and an inevitable urban evolution.
"I hated to see the Inn at Temple Square get torn down as much as anyone," Garn said. "We tend to become accustomed and comfortable with things, and it's disappointing when they change.
"I haven't had any hair for 40 years either, but I can't change that."
Chip Ward, author and longtime critic of EnergySolutions, sees the name change a bit differently. "EnergySolutions may create a much more positive association with its corporate name on an arena, but that doesn't reduce its mountain of waste out in the west desert," said Ward, a Grantsville resident.
Ward is watching this marketing game through a pragmatic prism. "Delta was flying high 15 years ago, and EnergySolutions is flying high right now. They've spent enormous money bombarding us with commercials softening their image in the community. But this is a very volatile industry. They may not be around 10 years from now, but that waste will be a problem for a lot longer than that."
Finally, one last thought: We ought to have a shorter, catchier version of the name EnergySolutions, don't you think? "Duck and Cover Dome" is a thought, but perhaps you readers have something better. E-mail me your suggestions. If I get a good sampling, I'll print them in a future column.
hmullen@sltrib.com
