To Tommy, or not to Tommy...

We're playing a little game we call "what's Tommy's name not on?" The Zamboni that smoothes the ice at the Frog Pond? It's on there. The welcome sign to Boston? It's on there. The toothbrushes the Boston Public Health Commission distributes? It's on there (and happens to be absurdly huge.) The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center? Yeah, that's it. Menino's name does not adorn the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is not yet called the Thomas Menino Convention Center. When and if Menino ever leaves office all the signs around the city with "Thomas M. Menino, Mayor" will lose his name and be repainted with his successor's. Today the Boston Globe reports that the Republicans are taking issue with the "yet" in that statement. Naming rights are big business in the modern era. The TD BankNorth Garden is the latest high profile name change. Gillette Stadium took the prize before then. Even before that the Hynes Convention Center took the name of the mayor who opened the Freedom Trail and oversaw the founding of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).

According to the Globe story the Republican Party is blaming the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority for dragging their feet and showing their democratic sympathy by not selling the naming rights for the new South Boston convention facility. Still named the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the convention center, for the right price, could be named for some corporate entity. It would take at least a half million dollars, but might bring the full mil to name the center in a multi-year deal. According to the Globe article:

The issue flared up last week when the Senate GOP leadership filed a proposed amendment to the state budget that it says would either sharply reduce or possibly eliminate the current $2.5 million state subsidy to the convention center by requiring the authority to sell the naming rights by next January. The Senate will consider the amendment when it begins deliberations on the $27 billion state budget plan this week.

The center has remained the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center since it opened in 2004. A bit of a tussle remains as the GOP looks to bring in revenue from corporate sponsors and the Convention Center Authority (headed by a former Menino aide) who says that naming rights aren't worth all that much. The GOP amendment may or may not make it to the senate as part of the state budget proposal – but it's certainly sparked discussion about what Menino gets named after him while he still walks the streets of Boston.