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Officials Are Thinking Of Selling The Naming Rights to Cobo Center

December 19, 2013, 10:45 AM by  Bill McGraw

Will Detroit get a new name for its old convention center one day soon?

A story in the January issue of Hour Detroit magazine about Cobo Center's history and $279-million renovation raises the issue, saying naming rights for Cobo could be for sale as the rebuilding project continues and officials seek revenue sources that don't involve taxpayer money.

In the article, writer Joe Lapointe portrays Larry Alexander, left, chairman of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, which runs the building, as acting coy when the subject of naming rights came up. 

Lapointe writes:

Alexander "says there might be new ways to finance the building without taxes."

One might be the selling of naming rights to a complex named after a former mayor and opened in 1960. Imagine “Little Caesars Center” or “Quicken- Loans Palace” or “(Your Auto Company Here) Place.” Alexander did not specifically say naming rights were for sale. But he didn’t deny it, either.

“Well, we’ll see,” Alexander says with a smile on recent afternoon. “I’ve got a couple of things up my sleeve. One of them could be naming rights.” 

In a phone interview Thursday with Deadline Detroit , Alexander was less coy.

"Naming rights will have to be one of those things we consider," he said. "We've had some preliminary discussions.

"We are obligated to look at every credible opportunity to make Cobo self-sustaining. Any prudent person would ask, 'is naming rights something that would be feasible?' "

He added: "We have to be good stewards of the public's money."

Alexander said he realizes "Cobo" has been the center's name for decades, and there might be opposition to a change.

"If we change it, I can hear some people saying, 'How dare you change the name of Cobo Center?'

"I respect that," he said. "But we're talking about dollars and cents here."

Detroit's most famous building whose name was paid for is probably Comerica Park, but that name came with the stadium's opening in 2000. A number of years ago, another financial institution attempted to rename the Penobscot Building the "City National Bank Building." But many people found it difficult to make the switch after decades of saying "Penobscot," and the name eventually reverted to Penobscot. 

The convention center's namesake is Albert Cobo, left, a conservative Republican who served as mayor of Detroit from 1950 to 1957, when he died in office. He oversaw the reconstruction of much of downtown, but his opposition to building public housing outside of the inner city won him the support of white homeowner groups and anti-civil-rights activists who opposed the integration of the city's all-white neighborhoods.

Cobo played the race card in campaigning for office, characterizing the movement of African Americans into white areas of Detroit as "Negro invasions." 

While Cobo is run by the regional authority, it's difficult to envision much opposition to changing the name in Detroit itself, with its large African-American -- and Democratic -- population. 


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