THAT TALL BLACK STEEL BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO - It's The WILLIS TOWER Now!
For years, my wife and Dean's Team Member Sue worked down at a major, world-renown building in Downtown Chicago - formerly known as The Sears Tower?
Formerly, you say?
Effective yesterday, the official name of that landmark structure has been changed, the naming rights sold, to an insurance company from The United Kingdom. The new name - "The Willis Tower!"
You've got to be kidding me? The Willis Tower? Naah - it can't be! This company is not even American. They are British! And, initially anyway, they will only occupy a small space in the building.
But money is money, whether it emanates from here in the USA, or across the pond. The deed has been done!
Will the name stick in the hearts and minds of Chicago and its visitors? After all, folks around Chicago still refer to the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox play as Comiskey Park, even though the naming rights were sold to cell phone company U.S. Cellular several years ago.
Marshall Fields? Long gone! It's Macy's now - although their old State Street Store still bears a placard calling it Fields, not the New York Company who purchased the chain and renamed it a couple of years ago.
Heck, even Wrigley Field was once Weeghman Park - before 1920, that is! You won't find too many in Chicago referring to the ballpark by the old name . . . yes?
But what about YOU? Will you still call the Willis Tower, the SEARS Tower, even though that recently-downtrodden Chicago Icon moved its corporate headquarters out of the building 17 years ago?
According to AP Writer Caryn Rousseau in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, many in Chicago - young and old - still plan to refer to the structure as The Sears Tower. But, for how long?
Some of the older folks in New York City still refer to the Met Life Building by its original name - The Pan Am Building. But these nostalgic oldsters are beginning to die off - and the younger set is not at all familiar with that long-defunct airline!
Maybe, just this time, things will be different. You think?
Unlikely! Time, as they say, marches on!
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
