Owlz back down on stadium name

It was reported in today's Daily Herald that The Orem Owlz have apologized to the local press for insisting that the ballpark they play in be called "Home of the Owlz", and it looks like the media's side of this story has come to a conclusion. Herald executive editor Randy Wright has said coverage of the minor-league team will resume; no word yet if the Deseret Morning News will follow suit.

Orem Owlz give in on stadium name (Daily Herald)

If there are those out there who still give a hoot (hoot, Owl...get it?) here is the link to a an open letter posted on the Owlz' website. In the letter are several links to fun little nuggets, like the e-mails that went back and forth from the team and the media, and the actual contract that the team and the school had been working under to find a naming sponsor. Enjoy!

What should be pretty to clear to everyone is that the Owlz reacted poorly, and attempted to put the media in a tough spot, going so far as to threaten pulling media credentials from outlets that had the audacity to mention Brent Brown Ballpark. The local papers called their bluff, and now the Owlz are backing down. Of course they aren't going to go out with any class....case in point is minority owner Jason Taylor's whiny post on the Herald website:

I wanted to clarify a couple of things. We, The Owlz, did not "give in" on the dispute with the naming of the stadium. We chose to not involve the working media moving forward. The apology was more on a personal level to the Executive Editor for the "misunderstanding" of why media creditentials would be at risk. We, as a Team, appreciate the hard work of the beat writers covering the Owlz, and felt it appropriate to slightly change our position on how the local media was treated. We stand by our position and will continue to try and keep constructive dialogue with the College until it is resolved. The Orem Owlz have had a great sponsorship relationship with the Daily Herald and want to continue that and grow the foundation of that relationship. We are not condoning or approving of the name change to the Stadium, we are only allowing the media to cover it as they see fit. We are going to continue to refer to the Stadium, as we are contractually allowed to, as " The Home of the Owlz." Unless you are personally affected by this situation please keep your opinions to yourself. There is alot of information, available on our website, to substaniate our claims.

Regards,

Jason Taylor

Of course, since The Pipeline has not been "personally affected by this situation" we should probably just keep our opinions to ourselves. Really professional there, Mr. Taylor.

Local papers boycott Owlz coverage

The Daily Herald and the Deseret Morning news have pulled all credentialed writers and photographers from covering the Orem Owlz season in the wake of the baseball stadium naming controversy at UVSC.

Newspapers stop covering Owlz (Daily Herald)

Sparks fly over Owlz name: Papers forgo coverage after intimidating e-mail (Deseret Morning News)

Clearly The Owlz have come out the losers on this fight.

More feathers fly between UVSC and the Owlz

Jason Franchuk over at the Daily Herald has picked up on the story about the fight between the Orem Owlz and it's landlords at UVSC, that has both sides pointing fingers and brandishing contracts.

Owlz owner, UVSC bicker over park name (Daily Herald)

Franchuk's story has more of the two sides locked in a passive-aggressive game of tug-of-war, and it follows on the heels of Jason Adkin's story in the Deseret News last week.

A few more details have come out, including Val Hale saying that he believes that the reason why the Owlz are insisting the stadium be called the "Home of The Owlz" is because they missed out on a possible pay day when they failed to secure a sponsor.

There was also this little nugget:

"While we enjoy the media coverage given us by the various media outlets, we will ask once again, this time with legal documentation to supplement the request, that all media references to the stadium be 'Home of the Owlz' and not Brent Brown Ballpark, Brown Ballpark, or any other variation of that name," Owlz general manager Zachary Fraser wrote in an e-mail dispersed to media outlets last Saturday that Katofsky approved.

"Our ownership group has stated that if this is not the case, we will unfortunately have to not allow violating members of media groups access to the stadium, players, or staff during our season."

In other words, they are asking the local media to pick sides. Some might think this is a smart move, after all the sports writers at the two papers in this one horse town get mighty lonely between BYU Football seasons, so staying on the team's good graces means better access to sports stories during the long boring summer.

On the other hand, The Owlz just might need the papers more than the papers need the Owlz. Throwing down an ultimatum complete with "legal documentation" to a bunch of fickle sports guys just might be enough to piss them off. And they would have a tough time locking out the guys from the Daily Herald...as the paper is a major sponsor of the team and has contracts swapping print ads for signage at the stadium.

And according to Franchuk, it isn't all just talk On opening night, June 19, there were issues in the stadium regarding banners. One was a Brent Brown banner that Owlz officials tried to cover before being stopped by UVSC reps.

This one might be a black eye for both parties for a little while. UVSC's VP of marketing Val Hale (pictured to the right) summed up the school's side of the story thusly: "It's totally baffling to everyone at UVSC that the Owlz would do this...The school owns the ballpark, the school owns the rights and keeps all of the revenue [from the Brown sponsorship]...It's in the contract. It's black and white, no question to it."

Katofsky, a lawyer and real estate developer in California, sees it the other way. "I know our deal. Our deal with the school was very clear," he said. "I am very happy UVSC got sponsorship, but they can't sell ours. For all of us (in the Owlz ownership group), it's a labor of love first and a business second. But it's still a business."

Orem Owlz refuse to play ball when it comes to stadium naming rights

Opening Day for the Orem Owlz' third season at UVSC was just last week, and it appears that tensions between the minor league baseball team and their campus landlords are once again heating up.

Two weeks ago when it was announced that local auto dealer Brent Brown was securing naming rights for the school's baseball stadium, the Owlz' general manager Zach Fraser told local media outlets that the team would still refer to the stadium as "Home of the Owlz" and not "Brent Brown Ballpark".

In an article over the weekend The Deseret Morning News tried to get to the bottom of this inconsistency.

UVSC, Owlz playing stadium name games (Deseret Morning News)

This is not the first time the team and the college have faced off against each other over their 10-year lease agreement. From the beginning in 2005 the two have maintained a tempestuous relationship to say the least.

At the heart of this controversy is the fact that UVSC is one of the few colleges in the country that provides facilities to a professional baseball team. In doing so the grounds at the stadium must be maintained at a level far above what is found at your average Division I school. This maintenance costs big bucks, and if it isn't up to snuff come opening day minor league baseball can shut the facility down. The team's affiliate, The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (no stranger to the politics of sports naming), also throws a fit when their valuable prospects play on an unsafe surface.

For those who have been out to a ballgame for the past two years, you know that the grounds crew does an amazing job night in and night out. But the cost of paying the crew falls on the college, and from what The Pipeline has heard from Owlz' management that cost gobbles up most of the lease payments the team makes.

A member of the Owlz front office also told The Pipeline that when the team met with Bill Sederburg a few months ago, the college president started off the meeting by saying "So when can we get you guys out of here?"

The naming rights issue was already particularly sticky for the team and the college, as the two entities had met together several times to try and secure a sponsor when Parkway Crossing fell through. The team had offered to find a corporate sponsor in exchange for a percentage of the deal, and apparently the school was not happy with the offer. Fraser refers in the Des News piece to a signed document that says that UVSC would work with the team to secure naming rights. Fraser insits that this hasn't happened with the Brent Brown deal.

Adding to the complexity of the issue is the fact that the campus will be hosting yet another professional team come this fall when the Utah Flash, the NBA Developmental League affiliate of the Utah Jazz, will play their home games at the McKay Events Center. Because the arena is a partnership with the county, it is not certain if UVSC will see any revenue from the venture.

UVSC's athletic director Mike "AD for Life" Jacobsen was quick to criticize the school's decision to approve the Flash deal, saying that it make scheduling a nightmare and hurt UVSC athletics. Jacobsen's comments came just days after the team announced their new deal, and word around the campfire was that Flash owner Brandt Andersen was none too pleased.

It wouldn't surprise The Pipeline one bit if the Owlz and the Flash weren't chomping at the bit to get off campus. While that might make a few people like Jacobsen happy now, it is important to remember that the lease agreement with the Owlz helps pay the county bond that purchased the stadium. If there is not a tenant helping to make those bond payments than the remainder will be paid by student fees.

Naming rights to baseball facility sold, again

It was announced to the media today that a deal selling the naming rights for UVSC's baseball stadium has been made, thus ending years of uncertainty over what exactly to call the facility.

For now it appears that local auto dealer Brent "Bend Over Backwards" Brown will be the one putting up the dough to see his name above the scoreboard. His $1 million (which the Des News article is calling a donation?) will be matched by Arizona philanthropists Ira and Mary Lou Fulton, though their names will not be featured on the facility.

You can read all about it here:

UVSC announces baseball stadium donors (Deseret Morning News)

UPDATE: UVSC stadium gets new name (Daily Herald)

UVSC stadium named Brent Brown Ballpark (Salt Lake Tribune)

Students at UVSC should sleep a little better tonight as this deal will end the two year ordeal as to who would be paying the bill for the stadium. When the county issued the bond a few years back they made UVSC secure funding by putting student fee money up if donors or a naming rights deal fell through.

In 2005 that is exactly what happened. After failing to make two bond payments Craig Pickering, who was at the time the owner of Parkway Crossing apartments, backed out of a $1.7 million naming rights deal with the college. To many of those involved the deal seemed fishy from the start, as Pickering is in-laws with UVSC Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen. When everyone else had cut bait on Pickering it was Jacobsen who still called it Parkway Crossing Stadium.

A 2006 article in The College Times found that the school ended up covering Parkway Crossing's payments for two years while still hoping they would come through. Then college spokesperson Derek Hall said that those payments were made with auxiliary funds and did not come from student fees. Who knows how the 2006 payment was made!

But it appears that Brown and the Fulton's have saved UVSC's bacon. Now if UVSC Athletics could just find a NCAA Div I conference to play in.