Dem Convention At The Pepsi Center: A No Coke Zone

Oh, the sacrifices of corporate sponsorship. The Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center is officially a no Coke zone.

After Tuesday's festivities, a senior official helping to organize the convention shared an amusing anecdote: earlier in the day, volunteers who had been provided box lunches and soft drinks were prevented from entering the arena due to a rule banning outside food and drink.

Convention staff were upset; the vending operations at the arena weren't running and the volunteers needed something to eat during the day. So reps from the Pepsi Center were consulted and a rule was set: the volunteers could bring their lunches, with one exception -- absolutely no Coca Cola products would be permitted inside the Center.

Comments

[midnightwriter]

http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/GOP08/images/singer.gif

[j0hnwi11iams]

I hate exclusive deals. It's ANTICOMPETITIVE. It should be OUTLAWED.

[iambusto]

then the cities should stop taking money from corporations. REFUSE to take money from any corporation. how about that ?

[1will]

What a shame. Obama really loves his coke.

[Eric8869]

I prefer Dr. Pepper anyway

[apoyo]

Isn't it frightening to have all these corporations putting their name on everything?

Mile High Stadium has resonance. It means something.

Who's Invesco?

[lewes17266]

got milk?

[Yvaughn]

I'm not, sadly, surprised. My school has no Coke machines. DFW Airport has no Coke machines. I now sometimes choose my fast-food based on whether they area Coke or Pepsi chain. And yeah--cities taking big money to pimp out their landmarks sucks. But it's fairly low on the list of things our country has to fix.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

Pepsi = pagan swill

[ArmchairPatriot]

Pepsi sucks, and BTW, how freaking fascist.

[BigLib]

Someone should have told Bubba no coke. That nose looked pretty happy last night.

[JonasH]

Yeah, still it's about time a big american company did its part to reduce coke use.

[Destin]

Ah Pepsi, the great supporter of the GOP Neocon bastion, just check their donations, i dare ya. ;) And this is the danger of allowing assinine things like private corporate sponsorship of very public things, like public sports arena's that the CITIZENS OF DENVER paid for!! What's more, this infringes on citizen's rights and liberties. Very, very, very un-Constitutional. Someone explain to me since when does private corporate rules trump national federal law??

[RobinSeattle]

Totally on target. This kind of corporate pettiness is a joke. There needs to be a law about naming public buildings after corporations. It is a wasted expenditure anyway that should annoy each company's shareholders. Like nobody in America has heard of Pepsi. Give me a break.

[iambusto]

well its the cities that accept corporate donations so its fair game in my opinion. If pepsi paid for sponsorhip (for venue or convention) they have every right to prevent people bringing in coke (the drink not the powder :))

[rangem]

prob not the coke that needed to be banned

[Grannysue]

I highly doubt a good many people there are drinking soda!

[mookworthjwilson]

I hear there was plenty of coke at the Bush Kennebunkport compound in the 70s and 80s...

[smags72]

LOL!!!

[1will]

And in Obama's college dorm.

[pilgrim7]

Goes way back to the PepsiCo vs Coca-Cola lawsuit (and other PepsiCo lawsuits filed) and with loyalty policies, not to mention the fact that Pepsi paid $68M for naming rights and promotional sponsorship of the Pepsi Center there in Denver.

[realityczech4u]

So the City of Denver pimped out the identity of a public facility for $68M and now Pepsi acts like they own the place. You can bet that the PC cost far in excess of that amount to build and the taxpayers are paying off the bonds that financed it.

[midknightryder13]

Essentially, yes -- but PC is HARDLY unique. The one that really riles MOST Denverites is "Invesco Field at Mile High". It was built to replace the old Mile High Stadium" The naming rights were sold, but the powers that be heard the grumblings of the populace about completely doing away with their beloved Mile High Stadium which is why it's the FIELD that has the corporate name.

Here's the kicker, Invesco went bankrupt a few years ago.

[Tom95134]

It's called the Golden Rule. If you have enough Gold to get your name on the place you can make the rules about what soda is served.

Frankly, I'm surprised that they relented on allowing the box lunches. I've worked on many trade show setup crews and the only way you got food into the booth crew was by using the center's catering services or buying it from a concession stand (if it any were open).