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.