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."