What's in a Name?

I was surprised by one of the comments made by Jim Melvin in the recent article entitled "Melvin:Golf Tourney in Peril" by Jim Schlosser in the Saturday, September 10, 2005 issue of the News & Record.

In that article Melvin suggested that one of the improvements that should be made to the event is to change the name of the tournament to reflect the entire region. Melvin said "He foresees an eventual change to "Carolina Chrysler Classic".

This seems to differ from what other local leaders, including Mayor Holliday, have been saying for years. The Jaycees have been encouraged to fight to keep the name "Greensboro" in the title of the event. (Greater Greensboro Open, Kmart Greater Greensboro Open, Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic and Chrysler Classic of Greensboro.) The Nike event was even called the Nike Greensboro Open.

Greensboro has always taken pride in the fact that it is one of the few remaining cities to have its name in the title of the event it host. The Greensboro Jaycee's sister chapter the Hartford Jaycees recently left the name Hartford out of its title, the Greater Hartford Open, to become the Buick Open.

Which brings us to the tournament's name changes over the years. People have really held on to the GGO, the Greater Greensboro Open, title. Even though it has not officially been know as that for over ten years.(Happy 10th anniversary Chrysler.)

It's not just old timers and Green Coaters that won't let go, its also the local media. The print media has been the worst about letting go. Weekly papers in this area still refer to the tournament as the GGO. They usually make some sort of joke about how they know it's called something else, but they want to call it the GGO.

In sharp contrast, when was the last time you heard anyone refer to the local baseball team as the Hornets or Bats? Talk about media bias. The baseball team changes its name and everyones on board. I mean, you don't see article after article calling them the old name and making jokes about it.

It makes me wonder. If the local media can do it for one sport, why not all of them? The truth is that Chrysler has been a great partner for ten years and eveytime an article is written that doesn't use their name-instead using one of the old ones-we as a community do this great sponsor a huge disservice.