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Oldsmobile Park might be renamed; Lugnuts fans don't mind

July 8, 2004

Lansing - Wearing his usual white Lugnuts cap and a faded gray baseball T-shirt Dexter Olsen takes his seat in Oldsmobile Park more than 30 minutes before game time, just as he has done for almost every game since 1996.

Olsen, a retired autoworker, has only missed about 10 home games of his beloved Lugnuts in the ballpark named after one of the divisions of General Motors Corp. - Oldsmobile - the company where he worked for many years.

With the Oldsmobile brand officially discontinued in April GM is considering changing the name of the Lansing ballpark. Olsen said, the change would be OK as long as GM retains the naming rights.

"Really I'd be satisfied with a name change as long as it remains something to do with General Motors," said Olsen, who lives in Owosso. "Being a retired autoworker, the auto reference in the name means a little more to me."

GM is in the ninth year of a 15-year contract with the City of Lansing for the naming rights. GM paid $1.5 million total for the rights broken down into $100,000 a year payment. While an official name change is not in the immediate future, the company has discussed options with the city.

Lugnuts general manager Jeff Calhoun said there is very little information about a possible name change, but the change will definitely not occur this season. Calhoun said that the Lugnuts organization has been planning a possible change since 2000 when the decision was made to phase out the Oldsmobile brand.

"We spent between $40,000 and $50,000 on a mural for the concourse that celebrates 100 years of baseball and 100 years of Oldsmobile," Calhoun said. "Having that mural means that no matter what happens to the name, Oldsmobile will never fully leave the park."

The Lugnuts Midwest League rival, the West Michigan Whitecaps, went through a similar name change two years ago when their park changed from Old Kent Park to Fifth Third Ballpark. The switch occurred after all the Old Kent banks were taken over by Fifth Third.

Whitecaps public relations manager Jamie Farber said that the change went pretty smoothly despite a lot of extra paperwork.

"We still have people that refer to the park as Old Kent, but really the switch was relatively painless," Farber said. "The fans don't seem to mind the change, it was more going through changing publications and letterhead that took time not fans getting accustomed to the new name."

Having Oldsmobile as part of the park's name may mean more to fans than it does to the players. Lugnuts catcher Jake Fox said that as long as the park stays the same, changing the name on the front of it will not have a huge effect.

"If they moved the park or changed the field, then yes it would have an impact on the whole tradition," Fox said. "If you bring your kids back one day to this park and say hey, when I played here it was Oldsmobile Park then I really don't think it will make that big of a difference."

Lansing resident Craig Galer brings his two young sons to the ballpark a couple of times a season and agrees that the name change will not make a huge difference in the community.

"There may be sentimental reasons for wanting to keep the name the same," Galer said. "But I suppose down the road, it may seem kind of silly to have a park named for a car that doesn't exist anymore."

Even though Olsen hopes that GM will continue to keep an auto name on the park, there is something even more important to him - baseball.

"I waited forever for Lansing to get a baseball team here and I was very happy to see the Lugnuts come," Olsen said. "As long as the team stays here and I can enjoy retirement and watching baseball, it can't get much better."

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