Your Name Here

One of the perils of corporations attaching their name to sports venues are the name changes that today’s globalized companies undergo on a regular basis. Football fans may remember that Gillette Stadium was briefly dubbed CMGI Field before the dot-com bubble burst. (ed: Or Enron Field. That was my favorite).

Perhaps the most long-suffering arena in our area is what was once the Fleet Center, and is now referred to as the Garden, even though the real Garden was knocked down in 1997.

It’s been a few years, so it’s time to rename the ever-evolving structure.

TD Banknorth currently owns the naming rights for the building, and pays $6 million a year for the privilege. The flush company recently bought New Jersey-based Commerce Bank, and has renamed itself TD Commerce Bank. Therefore, the name on the Garden has to change.

The company hasn’t yet decided what to name to give the arena. The TD Commerce Bank Center is the most obvious solution, but we’d advocate honoring the entire legacy of the building and naming it the TD Banknorth Commerce Garden Center. Sure, it sounds a little Home Depot-like, but everybody just refers to it as the Garden anyway. May as well go all out.

All we know is that this confuses us more than the multiple Washington Streets around the city.