TD Banknorth Garden

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[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.

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[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.

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[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]

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.

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[M. Brown]

whats the largest?

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[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.

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[Allan]

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.

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[thumper]

That was mighty nice of them.

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[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.

[Cotuit]

I know, Shawmut Centre was a good name. It was like it wasn't even a corporate name, it very well could have been named that without a corporate naming deal. Maybe BofA will back out of the naming deal and we can name it that.

[tocoto]

I heard BoA may let the naming rights go due to the high prices some other local companies are bidding. I wonder why BoA is so slow to change the Fleet name on its banks. The Fleet name is still all over New England.

[Cotuit]

I wonder why BoA is so slow to change the Fleet name on its banks. The Fleet name is still all over New England.

I think it is just a monumental task. There are thousands of branches and every single piece of paper in every branch says Fleet on it.

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[Cotuit]

FleetCenter name to die soon; new label uncertain

By Sasha Talcott, Globe Staff | September 2, 2004

Bank of America Corp. is close to a deal to put its own name on the FleetCenter, executives said yesterday.

The bank surprised some in the advertising world by declining to change the building's signs in time for the Democratic National Convention in July, but it now expects to have its name on the FleetCenter this fall, said Anne Finucane, Bank of America's president for the Northeast. She and other executives who spoke to The Boston Globe yesterday did not say what the building would be called, but said it will not contain the word ''garden," as in Boston Garden, the name of the now-demolished arena that preceded the FleetCenter at North Station.

Bank of America has been negotiating for months over the building's name and, until recently, there was little movement toward a deal.

Under Fleet Bank's current contract, negotiated in the mid-1990s, the bank was allowed to change the center's name once. But that already happened when Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., which had signed the original agreement with the arena.

Though Bank of America has long said it intends to put its own name on the building, it has shown little eagerness to rush into a deal. The bank will not change the Fleet signs at its Boston bank branches to Bank of America signs until December, so the Fleet name is not yet out of date here.

Bank of America has already put its own name on advertising signs at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.

Fleet pays $2 million a year to have its name on the FleetCenter. The building's owner, Delaware North Cos., has indicated it would like Bank of America's new contract to match sponsorship agreements for other similar sports facilities, which can cost between $3 million and $6 million a year. Staples Inc., for example, is paying $116 million over 20 years to have its name on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, an average of $5.8 million a year. Naming rights for the new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia cost $57.5 million over 25 years, plus $37.5 million to be the only financial services company allowed to have ads during games.

A FleetCenter spokesman, Jim Delaney, said, ''It's still in negotiations, but I think you can say it's at a more advanced stage than it was several months ago."

From The Boston Globe