[monsoon]

[tocoto]

It's not exactly free advertising. The naming rights were bought and are probably still being paid for. In the boston papers there has been speculation on the name change for months. Just today there was a story that said BoA officials seemed unsure of what they were going to do or when. The DN convention could be crazy with militant activitsts or worse bringing negative advertising. BoA may give it an interim name or do nothing until after the convention, who knows.

[Cotuit]

All this naming stuff could be quite expensive. Fleet has it's name on a lot of stuff all over New England. The costs to rebrand everything could run pretty high. Fleet Centre isn't just the name on the top of the building, every door and sign in that building says Fleet Centre. Seems like a no-brainer for BofA to put their name on it, it's one of the best naming rights in New England. But BofA may well try to sell some of Fleets many other naming rights.

[monsoon]

[tocoto]

The wall street journal says there is too little geographical overlap between the two banks to come close to 11,000 job reductions. There will be some, and some of them will be in Charllote and other cities "served" by these large banks. I just read that BoA/Fleet has agreed to pay 630+ million for improper mutual fund trading. That would pay for some new stationary and signage. Makes you wonder about the integrity of these big banks.

[monsoon]

[bigbuilding]

Damn, I thought this thread was going to be about demolishing the Fleet Center.

I wish Bank of America would move there HQ to Boston.

[Allan]

monsoon, on Mar 16 2004, 07:15 AM, said:

It should be noted that BofA recently opened a division in India and has been quietly shifting jobs there. And these are not lower skilled call center type jobs, but rather higher skilled white collar work such as programming and accounting.

Yeah, I saw this in the paper, but forgot to post it here. Yet more good paying jobs move overseas.

[monsoon]

[M. Brown]

whats the largest?

[monsoon]

[Scott]

Fleet and Bank of America announced yesterday that Fleet customers can use BoA ATMs nationwide without a fee and that Fleet checks will be honored in perpeputity in hopes of keeping customers. Signs in Times Square in NYC and MS Garden will be changed but the real merger will be in May of `05 when the computer systems are united.

[monsoon]

[Allan]

monsoon, on Apr 5 2004, 06:17 PM, said:

BofA officially announced today that 12,500 jobs will disappear as a result of the merger. The effect of this will be to save the combined bank $1.6 billion.

So I guess the rumor I saw in the paper about 12,500 jobs being lost because of the merger was true.

[monsoon]

[thumper]

That was mighty nice of them.

[monsoon]

[Ron Newman]

It's now 2 1/2 weeks before the convention, and the FleetCenter still hasn't been renamed. So I doubt that it will be, any time this month. Big lost advertising opportunity for B of A.

[Cotuit]

Don't remember if it has been mentioned in this thread already, but the naming deal has to be completely renegotiated (if BofA wants to drop the Fleet moniker that is, which I safely assume they would). The original deal signed by Shawmut Bank allowed for two names. Shawmut named the unfinished "New Boston Garden" after itself. Shortly thereafter, Fleet bought Shawmut and changed the name to Fleet Centre. The two names option is exhausted, so if BofA wants their name on it, they need to negotiate a new deal.

The Shawmut deal was one of the first in a wave of naming deals. Therefore, It didn't cost Shawmut much. The naming of the Fleet Centre will go for a lot more money when the deal is renegotiated. I suppose there is an outside chance that BofA will let it go and someone else will bid on it, but it seems like such a great asset, it would be hard to give it up.

Sources at BofA basically said several months ago that they didn't foresee changing the name in time for the Convention. The Fleet moniker already has had loads of national exposure in conection with the Convention. BofA basically reasoned that they were not rebranding branches in the Northeast until at least December and it was in their interest to keep he Fleet brand stong until then. I have seen some co-branding of sponsorship type things with BofA and Fleet. BofA is also advertising up here even though the branches aren't in yet, Fleet also continues to advertise.

[Ron Newman]

It's too bad the arena wasn't able to keep the name Shawmut Center. It is located right at the tip of what used to be called the Shawmut Peninsula. That's a Native American name, and Shawmut Bank's old logo featured an Indian.

This post has been edited by Ron Newman: 08 July 2004 - 07:26 PM