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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 , Updated

Coca-Cola Starplex Smirnoff Music Centre becomes Superpages.com Center

by PegNews wire

Live Nation has announced, in huge pat-itself-on-the-back fashion, that the Smirnoff Music Centre will now be called the Superpages.com Center.

For those who will recall, the venue was originally the Coca-Cola Starplex before it dropped to just the Starplex in 1998. In 2000, the venue's street cred was boosted when Smirnoff bought the naming rights. Now the 20,000 capacity amphitheater will be the cumbersome-to-say Superpages.com Center. While the new name is lame on nearly all accounts, at least they've dropped the annoying "r" before "e" spelling of the word "center."

Live Nation press release below:

Live Nation, the world’s largest live music company, announced today that they have signed a multi-year agreement with Idearc Media Corp.’s Superpages.com® to become the primary name in title sponsor for the Music Centre at Fair Park, Dallas’ premiere outdoor music venue. Effective today, the facility, formerly known as Smirnoff Music Centre, will now be known as the Superpages.com Center.

“This is a great and strategic opportunity for us locally and nationally,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of marketing at Superpages.com. “We are thrilled to be starting this relationship during the venues’ twentieth anniversary celebration – we really know where to find great music at a great venue around here.”

Opened in 1988, The Superpages.com Center has hosted over 600 concert events for over 6,000,000 patrons, making it the Metroplex's premiere and longest running outdoor facility dedicated solely to live concert events. The venue is part of Dallas’ Fair Park complex, which includes museums, an aquarium, gardens and the Cotton Bowl football stadium.

Avril Lavigne, and rock and roll icons Rush, are the first of many shows which will be part of the 2008 Superpages.com Center’s line-up. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary season for the venue so stay tuned for additional shows to be announced throughout the spring and summer as part of this special season at Superpages.com Center.

“Our new relationship with Superpages.com is an important venture for us, the City of Dallas and the entire Metroplex community. I am extremely proud of the legacy of this facility, and we have now opened a brand new chapter in the venue's history. I anticipate the inaugural season at Superpages.com Center to be one for the record books,” said Bob Roux, regional president of Live Nation.

Daniel Huerta, executive general manager for Fair Park said, “We look forward to a successful 2008 concert season at the Superpages.com Center in Fair Park, Texas. We enthusiastically support Live Nation in providing top notch music entertainment essential to our efforts in positioning Fair Park as a world-class cultural park that offers year-round activities and attractions for all ages and interests and provides community and family oriented programming. “

Posted by Erin

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

Kevin Kunreuther, says:

Great. The Vodka-plex is now the Stupor Center. Is it any wonder the Knock-Knock in Big Bad Fairie and The Corporate Cathedral at Victory-less Park get all the good shows? Looking forward to the puppet show and Spinal Tap re-Reunion tour this summer ...

Verified

1 year, 10 months ago
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Howard Wen, says:

If I was crazy rich, I would pay to have it named "The Baby Dolls Music Extravaganzaplex 3000."

Verified

1 year, 10 months ago
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JW Richard, says:

Since Idearc Media is the arm that produces Superpages for Verizon, why didn't they just call it Verizon Center (like Verizon Park in Houston) or Idearc Center? Why would you put a .com in the middle of your venue name?

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1 year, 10 months ago
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James Scott, says:

"Extravaganzaplex" - nice.

...and yeah JW, in this day and age, isn't it kind of an insult to assume that people are that out of touch with this new thing called the World Wide Web (I think that's what WWW stands for) that we need to be told to put ".com" on the end of something to get their website? Like if we had any inclination of looking them up, we would have had no chance unless they provided that bit of information?

Can we just secretly go back to calling it the Starplex?

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1 year, 10 months ago
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Sander Wolf, says:

Can't we publicly refer to it as Starplex? It's bad enough that corporations are naming public venues. It's even worse when they keep changing the names. I hope Daniel Huerta got a decent cut of the $ to be shilling for a corporation that's not his employer.

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1 year, 10 months ago
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incognato, says:

ahh, ".com" on a large venue name. That takes me back about 10 years ... before the bubble popped. So I guess this internets thing is picking up?

In all honesty, I think I'd prefer "superman" over "superpages", but that's just my opinion. Oh well.

And, It'll always be starplex to me. I'll always remember Jane's Addiction with Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Anonymous

1 year, 10 months ago
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John McClelland, says:

I know this isn't arena related, but as far as sponsors go, I still miss the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl.

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1 year, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

OOOH! We could hyphenate like those women who remarry over and over.

The Starplex-Smirnoff-Superpages Center! ...dot...com...

Anonymous

1 year, 10 months ago
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Peter Stawicki, says:

I understand that this is all about advertising dollars but for crying out loud the name is stupid and sounds stupid. I agree with Sander, lets just call it the Starplex!

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1 year, 10 months ago
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amyarnold, says:

Clearly, none of you are in marketing.

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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Jeremy Dunck, says:

I took a couple marketing classes.

I thought marketing was supposed to be about making sure that your product (or service) filled a need and clearly communicating that product to the intended consumer of that product.

I understand that forcing people to say your company name when referring to their daily lives is good for brand recognition and that it may have some residual effect when it comes time for people to use the service, but that doesn't make it good marketing.

Staff

1 year, 9 months ago
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Mike Orren, says:

Jeremy, your "marketing classes" clearly don't qualify you to make this sort of analysis. I'm with amyarnold and the good people of Idearc. This is a marketing masterstroke -- and we'll be making a similar, if marginally less market-impactful announcement of our own in the next week.

Staff

1 year, 9 months ago
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Scott Doyle, says:

A marketing masterstroke?

They paid a bunch of money to have their company name (technically website) on a venue. It's effective in that it shoves their name down our throat, but it's no masterstroke. You have to be 'in marketing' to know that attention-whoring works?

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1 year, 9 months ago
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Collin Gouldin, says:

Headon, apply directly to your forehead. Headon, apply directly to your forehead. Headon, apply directly to your forehead.

ya, ... it works ... (although that stuff is really dangerous and I'll never buy it)

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1 year, 9 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

Oh my! Which venue will soon be named for pegasusnews.com? Trees? Dada?

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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Scott Doyle, says:

The out-house?

I keeeeeed, I keeeeed.

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1 year, 9 months ago
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EdWeirdness, says:

Just as fortold in the prophecy! I however; avoid any marketing efforts that force me to utter the word "dot", and make an effort to find alternatives. Fortunately, there is no yellowbook.com center in the offing, so I can avoid costly 411 calls.

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

Yay!!! I guessed Dada!!! Do I win a prize???

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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Mike Orren, says:

Um, <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/feb/14/pegasus-news-buys-exclusive-naming-rights-lee-harv/">no</a>.

Staff

1 year, 9 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

:-( I'm going to a website where my psychic powers are more appreciated.

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

Ok - Maybe I was dreaming but I could have sworn the newsletter in my inbox this a.m. said something about Dada? Was my morning all just a dream or did my ADD kick in mid-article?

Anonymous

1 year, 9 months ago
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Mike Orren, says:

Our first <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/feb/29/86876/">local music showcase</a> is at Dada. But we didn't buy naming rights there...