A New (Purchased) Name for the Roanoke Civic Center?

OK, class, here are some choices. Pick from among them or suggest your own.

• Carilion Coliseum
• Norfolk Southern Palace
• General Electric Square Garden
• Areva Arena
• Kroger Circus
• CRC Gymnasium
• Luna Hippodrome
• Cysco Stadium
• First Citizens Dome

The point of this little exercise is to try on some possibilities for the Roanoke Civic Center's new name. Seems the powers that be there want to sell naming rights--as has been done in a number of arenas, including the baseball stadium in Salem, which is now Lewis-Gale Field at Salem Memorial Ballpark..

The City of Roanoke and Civic Center manager Global Spectrum have hired Sponsor Hounds (at 18 percent commission) to search for an overall sponsor (not to mention a lot of little ones whose ads will appear throughout the building).

The rights for the Civic Center naming, as well as sponsorships for the Performing Arts Theatre and Special Events Center will also be on the table. Kroger and Pepsi are already on board at this point, but not for the biggie.

It hasn't been determined how much the new Civic Center name will go for, but it's not likely to be cheap.