I thought the Hawks and State Farm reached an agreement on naming rights for the team’s arena. I was mistaken. What really happened is the basketball team and the insurance company reached an agreement to transform the city of Atlanta.
Seriously, that’s what they said. The subject line for the media release that arrived in my inbox blared: “STATE FARM AND ATLANTA HAWKS BASKETBALL CLUB ANNOUNCE GENERATIONAL COLLABORATION TO TRANSFORM CITY OF ATLANTA.”
They say they will accomplish this with “new community engagement programs and philanthropic initiatives.” In the release, Hawks principal owner Tony Ressler declared: “Generations will be positively impacted by the work we do throughout Georgia, and we could not be prouder to have the State Farm name on our new arena.