Baseball fans probably won’t be watching any future Rockies games from “MillerCoors Field.”
Even if the proposed merger between Molson Coors and SABMiller succeeds, experts say the familiar “Coors” name should remain intact on venues such as Coors Field, Coors Amphitheatre and the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado.
Altering it “would be a bad idea because each one of those brands has a loyal following,” said Stan Slater, a professor of marketing at the College of Business at Colorado State University who worked as an assistant brand manager at Coors in the early 1980s.
It “would cause confusion among consumers and alienate a lot of the current customers,” he said.
Kabira Hatland, spokeswoman for Coors Brewing Co., said it is too early for the company to consider changing the names of any venues.
Don Hinchey of the sports marketing firm Bonham Group said fans get attached to venues.
“When people think of the Rockies, they think of Coors Field, and fans of the (Milwaukee) Brewers think of Miller Park,” he said.
A change, he said, “would be a huge marketing misstep.”
Karen Rouse: 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com
Coors Field
Venue: Colorado Rockies baseball team home stadium
Opened: April 26, 1995
Capacity: 50,381
Coors Amphitheatre
Venue: Formerly Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village
Opened: June 11, 1988
Capacity: 16,800
Coors Events Center
Venue: University of Colorado arena, Boulder
Opened: Nov. 8,1979
Capacity: 11,064
Miller Park
Venue: Milwaukee Brewers baseball team home stadium
Opened: March 30, 2001
Capacity: 43,000
