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Jobing.com Arena Name Change

August 19, 2014, 12:56 PM ET [59 Comments]
James Tanner
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The naming history of the Phoenix Coyotes is long and slightly ridiculous.

Originally, they were the Winnipeg Jets and they played in the WHA. In 1979, that league folded and the Jets entered the NHL where they played until 1996.

On July 1st 1996, the Jets moved south and became the Phoenix Coyotes.

Interesting thing about the move? They actually played in the city of Phoenix, out of the America West Arena, which is today called the US Airways arena. Logically, the team played in downtown Phoenix, which is very sensible, since they were called Phoenix Coyotes and most of the professional sports teams play downtown in the city after which they are named.

For a myriad of political and financial reasons, the Coyotes moved out of the city of Phoenix into the suburb of Glendale in 2003. This is only 8 miles out of downtown Phoenix and isn't really all that unusual of a setup as the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL also play there (in Glendale, not the same arena, obviously) and the Ottawa Senators have a similar setup, playing several miles out of downtown Ottawa in the city of Kanata.

When the Coyotes moved to Glendale in 2003 they played at the Jobing.com arena, which was easily the worst named building in professional sports.

Personally, in as much as I care about what a stadium or arena is called, I prefer olden times when arenas had cool names like Maple Leaf Gardens, The Spectrum and Boston Gardens. In the age of lame corporate branding, we are stuck with a bunch of stupid names that change all the time in cookie cutter areas that lack personality and which no one can keep straight what they're called.

However, Jobing.com was a special case because it was the worst of the worst. What is a Jobing anyways? I still don't know and I am never going to look it up because i don't care to patronize them in anyway. All I know is that anything with ".com" in the name that isn't a website is very confusing and dumb.

Anyways, the arena name has long been a joke. This summer, in what is being sold as a "re-branding," but which I have had people tell me was actually a stipulation of the Glendale City Council in order to maintain their support and keep the team in Phoenix/Glendale/Arizona. The team has changed it's name to the Arizona Coyotes, which I am sure will soon sound normal and isn't really a big deal, even if the reasoning that people will care more about the team if it has a more generic geographical name is dubious at best.

To go along with this new name, the naming rights of the arena have also been sold and changed. Which, since Jobing.Com Arena is a mouthful at best, and a poetic abomination at worst, can only be a good thing.

The new name of the building will be the Gila River Arena. Which.......man, I don't know. It sounds horrible. Que a million Gila Monster jokes. It's obviously better than Jobing.com but really, only in the way that selling the naming rights to a Casino is better than selling them to a Tobacco Company.

But hey, if there's one thing an economically ravaged area needs, it's to convince it's citizens to gamble more.

Anyways, the bottom line is that the Coyotes will now go from having the worst arena name in sports to the most hilarious arena name in sports. The deal still needs to be ratified by the notorious Glendale City Council, but Coyotes owner and CEO Anthony LeBlanc expects "no opposition." By which I assume he means the council will approve the change by a single vote and then spend years in litigation over a technicality.

Thanks for reading.


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