News broke this morning that BB&T bank will buy SunTrust Bank creating the sixth largest bank in the country. That’s probably interesting to their customers, their likely worried employees and to bank regulators. It’s at least somewhat interesting for baseball too, in that the Braves play in SunTrust Park and after this merger there likely is not going to be a SunTrust Bank, at least in name, any longer.
I presume that the new entity will keep the naming rights deal post-merger, but there is no word what the new bank’s name is going to be yet. Part of me wants it to just be National Bank™ or Metropolitan Bank™ with bank executives insisting on the Braves playing in a park that sounds like the name of one of their division rivals, but we’re probably not going to be that lucky. Maybe it’ll be some made-up word like “Altria” or “EasBanCo” or something dumb. Can’t wait for Chip Caray to lean into that name during the pregame intro.
All I’ll say is that if the Braves had eschewed the few million they’re getting in naming rights, did the right thing and named the place Henry Aaron Field (“The Hank”), they wouldn’t have to go changing signs next winter. No one asks me these things, though.
