Hewlett Packard CEO Leo Apotheker‘s move to exit the consumer computer business could bring more bad news for San Jose’s budget. The Palo Alto computing colossus currently pays San Jose and the arena’s management firm $3.25 million annually to hang its sign at the HP Pavilion’s entrance. Of that amount, $1.25 million goes directly into the city’s general fund. But with the agreement set to expire at the end of 2015, and HP’s plan to spin off its line of PCs—like the “Pavilion” models—the Shark Tank’s proper name seems unlikely to stick. Tom Manheim, director of communications for City Manager Debra Figone, says the city is pretty sure it hasn’t heard from HP that the company wants to change the arena’s name or end the agreement prematurely. Part of the reason for the uncertainty is that downtown coordinator Lee Wilcox, who recently took on naming-rights management, just returned from paternity leave. With a few million dollars potentially in limbo, Wilcox might want to make checking that inbox a priority. An HP spokesman said no one at the company could provide details on the agreement or discuss the name game. But if a name change does occur, it won’t be the first time. Longtime HP employee Ron Gonzales, who took a break to serve as mayor of San Jose, was in office in 2002 when the city rebranded “Compaq Center” after his corporate benefactor HP acquired Compaq. If the conventional wisdom that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is now girding for a hostile takeover of HP after bringing HP’s dumped CEO Mark Hurd on board comes true, San Jose could do even better. Ellison has long sought ownership of an NBA franchise. In 2007 the arena’s naming-rights agreement was amended so the city would receive an additional $800K if basketball ever found its way to San Jose.
Business
Shark Tank Could be Playing Name Game
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HP Pavilion could be receiving some new signage now that Hewlett Packard has announced plans to possibly spin off its personal computer line.
How about we call it “Chuckies Hall of Shame”
SJ will never get a Professional BB Team or a MLB Team. Sharks and Minor league BB is about all this city deserves. Oh yeah the soccer team plays in Santa Clara.
Mr. Wolf, do not build it because they will not come and nobody cares!
Gotta love this San Jose spirit! (Sarcasm of course…pretty pathetic if you ask me).
Hey Tony,
Put a death wish on him… now that’s pathetic!
You’re right Greg; no one needs to die…JUST MOVE TO DAMN HOLLISTER ALREADY!
All those over the age of 40 and those persons critical of San Jose, think we could be doing a lot better, and have the audacity to state their opinions are hereby banished to Hollister.
All those who obediently praise every decision by the City of San Jose to spend enormous amounts of tax dollars often don’t actually live in and pay taxes in San Jose. These persons are hereby restricted to Morgan Hill.
Sound about right, Tony d.?
REALLY?? Chuckie wasn’t in office when it was built. As I recall it, it was Tom McEnery’s baby. Please define what is the “shame” of a venue full of paying customers having a good time, whether it be a hockey game, a concert, or a religious revival, who also spend money at local restaurants, bars, and hotels.
Oh, and the fact that you may not care about a baseball stadium does not come close to meaning that NOBODY cares.
It was Tom McEnery who got the Arena built. Chuck Reed strikes me as a decent mayor, but he doesn’t particularly have anything to do with the Arena.
“Tom Manheim, director of communications for City Manager Debra Figone, says the city is pretty sure it hasn’t heard from HP that the company wants to change the arena’s name or end the agreement prematurely. Part of the reason for the uncertainty is that downtown coordinator Lee Wilcox, who recently took on naming-rights management”
City Manager
Director of Communications
Downtown Coordinator
And you wonder why the city cannot get anything done AND why we have a budget problem. It’s not pensions, it’s because we have way to many people working under the mayor and city manager who do nothing and just collect a check and a title. Yet we lay off police and other dedicated, hard working city workers.
What is wrong with this picture Chuckie & Chief Figone that’s what!
Another symbol of corporate welfare. Aside from gang members having a place to meet on a warm day to plot the overthrow of our neighborhoods and a place to spend their government checks that I pay taxes to fund, what good are professional sports stadiums?
I know that sooner or later Raider fans on their way to the Arena for their culture’s basketball, will take me hostage in my home and do evil things to my Mr. Paafington.
We had four fighters due to cutbacks protecting the East Coast and 130 million people. 9/11. We now have about 1,200 officers 700 Fire Fighters to protect over a million people in San Jose. When will we learn that public safety is number one.
Great job Meyer Weed. Here’s another!
Jose Salcido, city council, Mayor’s executive officer, Mayor’s gang task force liaison.
Total pay: 128,520.00
Base pay: 116,654.00
Sick/vacation buyout: 5,740.00
Other cash buyouts: 6,126.00
City paid medical: 1,271.00
City paid retirement contribution: 30,072.00
Double dipper from the Santa Clara county sheriff department as a LT.
Gang homicides up and on the rise, over a 100 attempted murders on the the street’s of San Jose. Should this guy still have a job?????
Almost every command staff officer in SJPD has a secondary job after leaving. How about an assistant chief who is now a chief. Made his buddy a chief before leaving the P.D. and now has him as a command staff officer at his new department. Where were you when this was going on? What was the combined payout for the two from the city? I think that alone could have paid for half a dozen cops. I am not for Salcido or against him. Your PR failures have now pushed you into personal attacks. Find another topic that is more productive.
Why not talk about a property sold by the city for half a million dollars located downtown. Who was the buyer. Has the buyer bought property before and re sold it back to the city? WWhat is the cost of un licencesd drivers being allowed to continue on the roadways with having their car towed. What has the expense been to the city for that. O wait your next post will be about Victor Ajalouny. Just ry and be productive on things you can change.
I guess I hit a nerve.
First, every public employee is fair game my friend, and when they are not doing their job correctly they should called on it. The gang problem in San Jose epic, lucky we have good hospitals in the area, and deep pockets for their medical care. Just like the police chief is called out in the newspaper.
Second, when the mayor comes out and says that double dipping should not be aloud, and then he hires somebody that is collecting a pension, that’s called a double standard. I guess it’s o.k. for the mayor togo back on his word.
Third, if you read Pierluigi article this week, I posted about all the waste the city does.
Forth, as far unlicensed drivers, why don’t you ask the city council, and more specifically Sam Liccardo, he’s the mastermind behind it. You have to pay for drivers license, but illegal’s don’t, another double standard.
Fifth, Victor Ajalouny, doesn’t he live in Kansas, and who cares?
So there you go my friend, be safe!
Chuck Reed in his robe and flip flops, tightly bound to prevent photographers taking photos of the mayoral inner thigh, has made calls overseas to get Marmite producers to cough up money for Marmite Arena.
San Jose will be the host city for the Marmite Invasion. Marmite is the favorite snacky for Licaardo and Reed. Oliverio has Marmite parties and will back the name change.
Union Presidents are granted full time union job plus half another just to fight the city. Tax payers are paying these people to do union work on tax payers time. I wonder if this includes board members as well. Can anyone add up the tax burden for Union work on the job? How many unions around county have the same PERKS? just questions
Can the Police and fire unions answer that question. You write enough on this blog
That was a position that was “NEGOTIATED” between the POA and the city of San Jose. The position involves more then just negotiating contracts. The rest of the broad work their assigned police positions within the department, and he also works as police officer, crazy!
So, tell me how much the city spends fighting the police department for benefits that have already been “negotiated?” Doesn’t the city have a staff of 10 to 15 people and and a outside lawyer firm working on it? Doesn’t that cost the tax payer millions upon millions!
If you don’ have a good police department, the city has nothing!
It goes both ways my friend, stay safe!
<<<So, tell me how much the city spends fighting the police department for benefits that have already been “negotiated?” Doesn’t the city have a staff of 10 to 15 people and and a outside lawyer firm working on it? Doesn’t that cost the tax payer millions upon millions>>>
@Do your homework: Meyer Weed thinks you have a point.
POA’s George Beattie: $162,634 including $50467 to retirement
POA’s Jim Unland: $137,889 including $43,580 to retirement.
Mayor Reed’s Team leaders and their Salaries:
Debra Figone: $276,684
(including $61,655 towards retirement and $21,509 IN CITY PAID DEFERRED COMP! – what an outrage!)
Alejandro (Alex) Gurza: $205,619 ($49,081 to Retirement – Gurza apparently was unsuccessful at winning city paid DefComp for his own UNION)
John Richard “Rick” Doyle: $250,061 ( $14,956 City Paid DefComp AND $55,126 Towards retirement)
Scott P Johnson :$227,390 ( $54,238 to retirement)
I have to take a break – I am feeling ill, Are you ill yet?
There is one. And only one. Name for the arena.
Mineta Arena.
Picture this… Before each Sharks game, on the jumbotron, one out of the million or so Mineta speeches about Japanese internment could be played.
Stone cold, slam dunk awesomeness.
Thanks for sinking this blog about as low as it can go. Do you really have nothing productive to add besides an attack on Mineta and Japanese Americans? I doubt you can be ashamed of yourself but you should be.e
> Thanks for sinking this blog about as low as it can go. Do you really have nothing productive to add besides an attack on Mineta and Japanese Americans?
Mineta was the worst kind of ethnic chauvinist.
He went back to Congress again and again to get guilt money for Japanese internees. By one count, Japanese internees were compensated and/or apologized to at least FOUR times!
Mineta’s career was built on divisive ethnic politics and waving the proverbial bloody shirt.
Italian Americans and German Americans were also interned during WW II, and in the case of Germans, also during WW I.
Americans of German and Italian ethnicity askeg Mineta many times to include German and Italian internees in the compensation/apology legislation.
Mineta just blew them off: “We suffered more.”
I’m all for telling the story of German-American and Italian-American internees on the Sharks Ice jumbotron, AND for telling the story of Mineta’s cold, callous and divisive ethno-centric politics.
Not down with the pre-game internment speech loop?
Ok ok, picture this… instead we show a highlight reel of Norm’s greatest hits on the Mineta Arena jumbotron.
Hits like:
Kroft: Are you saying, at security screening desks, that a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach, Florida, would receive the same level of scrutiny as a Muslim young man from Jersey City?
Mineta: Basically, I would hope so.
And who could forget Norm quitting congress midterm, boxing up all his files, to join up with Lockheed as a lobbyist. (We’d have to re-enact that one, pre-youtube and all).
Whaddya say O.Really? You feeling it? I knew that you would.
Perhaps it was misguided to have Minister of Propaganda Manheim tell all of you that cops and fire fighters make too much and that their pensions are the reason why the City is going broke.
Maybe he should have been telling you that he is overpaid and his pension is the cause of the City’s financial woes.
Check this out Public Employee Salary and Benefit watch dogs:
Tom Manheim’s 2010 compensation package totaled $178,652!
Base pay: $164,756
Sick leave/Vacation payouts: $9,696
“other” Cash Compensation: $4,200
City Paid Medical/Dental: $13,001
City Paid Retirement C0ntribution: $42,471
AND there is a note that says he RETIRED on 12/26/2010!!!!
(http://www.sanjoseca.gov/salary/Default.aspx) search “manheim.”
Maybe he is “pretty sure” he retired. I might be pretty sure that Tom might possibly be semi-retired or kind-of sort of double dipping! Maybe in “Communications Director-speak” “retired” and “paternity leave” are synonymous.
Who knows – Fly? WTF?
Great. Let’s get our arena back, and call it the San Jose Arena. That will give us more publicity than trying to change the useless airport name.
Given Chuck Reed’s lifestyle. I think he could cut a deal for the Arena to be called DEPENDS ARENA, and he would get a lifetime supply.
Heres an Idea , Why dont we call it “The Commode”. since Reed,Figone,city council,McEnery,Swenson are taking this city down the Toilet!
You hit a home run, thank you!!
There is a really old and boring guy at the merk who has the local monopoly on the name game. I am sure he would take great offense at naming anything associated to to City and it wonderful group of incompetents that run it. Especially since he himself has a taxpayer funded office in city hall.
He would probably resurrect the “name the arena” column he wrote when the place was built – I think he claims his work resulted in the painfully obvious “the tank” moniker. He will rail against corporate sponsorship while demanding public funds for a ball park (though he is the self-appointed NIMBY mouthpiece for the Rose Garden – something about the tanks traffic lowered property values and the Garden can’t suffer another hit).
San Jose’s high tech image is really just that- an image. HP Pavilion is a name that doesn’t really fit anymore in 2011. Why not choose a name that more truly reflects the squalid, trashy, third world nature of the real San Jose?
In recognition of the lamentable state of the river that flows right past it, how about if we rename the arena the Guadalupe Dump?
The wildly profitable landfill of the same name could easily afford to sponsor it and they would benefit from the publicity.
It is only fair that the City rename the Compaq/HP Pavilion/Arena/Tank “The Toilet.”
I renamed my Toilet “Chuck Reed-Debra Figone-Sam Liccardo-Pete Constant” actually feel sorry for them every time I drop trow and open the bomb-bays to deposit my massive morning constitutional in my monument to them.
I must be seeing things I read somewhere on this thread that there are City Administrators who are getting a city paid retirement contribution AND city paid deferred compensation???? No Way!
Good thing I just loaded up on fiber! Look out Chuck-Deb-Sam-Pete HERE I COME!
How about the San Jose Cannabis Collective Coliseum?
They can officially declare that its called the “Corporate Wanker Tub o’ Crap,” for all I care, but I’ve been calling it “the Arena” for about twenty years now, and that’s what I’m going to keep calling it (and people always seem to know what I mean, too). Just like that place where the San Francisco Giants play is called “Giants Stadium,” not “Pac Bell Park,” or otherwise referred to under the name of whichever gaggle of capitalist ninnies have wasted money on purchasing the dubious right to post their name on something that doesn’t belong to them.
> They can officially declare that its called the “Corporate Wanker Tub o’ Crap,” for all I care, . . .
I’m just guessing, here, but you didn’t do very well in Marketing, did you.
Why would you insult me by suggesting I would stoop to taking a Marketing class? WHY?!?
In any event, if in Marketing classes they teach you that its a wise expenditure to put your name on some arena you don’t own, then I would humbly suggest that Marketing instructors are fools. Clearly, no one I know, no one you know, and no one who exists period, actually makes purchasing decisions based on such irrelevant Tom Foolery as which corporation has paid to plaster its name on the Arena, ergo any such funds spent on that purpose are wasted. You might want to eschew courses in non-academic topics of dubious merit, such as “Marketing,” and work on cultivating a little basic common sense.