Corestates Center First Union Center Wachovia Center Wells Fargo Center

Chase Utley will now have his quote permanently attached to The Stadium That Houses The Flyers And The Sixers.

It started out as the Spectrum II (prior to contruction), then it was bought by Corestates and was named the Corestates Center for its grand opening in 1996. Then they merged with First Union and thus the legend of the First Union FU Center was born. But sadly all things have to come to an end, and First Union merged with Wachovia, thus turning the building into the Wachovia Center. And now with Wachovia merging with Wells Fargo, The Building That Houses The Flyers And The Sixers will get a new name, the Wells Fargo Center. Or as Chase Utley might want to call it, the World Fucking Center. From The 700 Level

Look, I get that the money brought in by corporate naming rights of arenas and stadiums is huge, absolutely staggering. Sure it'd be great to still have our buildings named after private citizens, esteemed public figures, the teams that inhabit them, or respected groups such as our nation's military veterans. Although many of the edifices named after people bore the names of men who themselves were corporations, the Wachovia Center is built on the ground that once laid beneath John F. Kennedy Stadium. But, we all know that sports teams are businesses with many shareholders and stakeholders, and the revenue brought in by selling the name of a building is about the best "found money" you can come by.

That doesn't mean it's not somewhat annoying to have to keep up with all the name changes that result when the corporations that originally bought the rights in turn get bought themselves. And, considering that many of the naming rights are going to banks these days, and those banks merge, get bought, or buy other banks with dizzying regularity, we should be used to it by now, especially in Philly. Christened the CoreStates Center, the major indoor arena in Philadelphia has also been named the First Union Center and currently the Wachovia Center—all since 1996. And now, it'll soon become the Wells Fargo Center, named after a financial institution that already has naming rights for two other arenas in the US. Yes, as of July 1, 2010, there could potentially be a question raised in a bar some night, "Wait, which Wells Fargo Center do you mean?"

At least we're familiar with the letters W-F-C around here

World Center. World Fucking Center!

It may not be as epic or as awesome as the FU Center, but any building that is initialed in Philadelphia as WFC is fine by me.

That is until when some other random bank merges with Wells Fargo in 5 years.