Not only are most of Aaron Carter’s fans too young to drink vodka, they’re apparently too young to be in an arena named after one.
For one day only, the Smirnoff Music Centre, a 20,000-seat venue in Dallas, won’t be using the name that the Ste. Pierre Smirnoff company purchased last year, according to an arena spokesperson. Instead, the venue will be known as the Music Centre at Fair Park when the teenybopper tour of Aaron Carter, his sister Leslie, and the A*Teens takes the stage July 1.
When the company, best known for its vodka, purchased the naming rights for $6 million last year, a “responsibility” clause was written into the contract requiring the venue to omit the Smirnoff name from all tickets and advertising for any show for which 70 percent of the audience would be under 21 years old, the spokesperson said. The venue estimates the ages of the fans based on those who purchased the albums of the artists in question.
To ensure against potential concertgoers’ confusion upon learning about a show held in a venue with an unfamiliar name, the spokesperson said that all advertising will specify that the Music Centre at Fair Park was formerly known as the Starplex Amphitheatre, the arena’s name before it changed last August.
Carter’s concert marks the first time the venue will conform to the stipulation, but the spokesperson said an upcoming show that has yet to be confirmed is expected to invoke the clause once more.
Smirnoff isn’t the only alcohol company to purchase the naming rights to a venue. The Coors Brewing Company’s Coors Light brand precedes the name of a few U.S. venues. However, when the Aaron Carter tour rolls through the Coors Light Amphitheatre at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pa., the arena’s name will not change, according to the venue’s general manager.
