Sparks fly over Owlz name

OREM — Utah Valley State College and the Orem Owlz are playing hardball over the name of the baseball stadium on the southwest corner of the college campus.

UVSC insists the name is the Brent Brown Ballpark, since the Provo auto dealer pledged $1 million to the school earlier this month to secure the naming rights.

The minor league baseball team, on the other hand, wants the stadium called the Home of the Owlz both at its games and in news accounts of the games.

Owlz general manager Zachary Fraser spun off a curveball last Saturday in an e-mail in which he threatened to pull the press credentials of reporters who do not refer to the stadium as the Home of the Owlz.

As a result, the Deseret Morning News and Daily Herald in Provo have chosen not to cover home games.

"I don't take well to blackmail," said Randy Wright, executive editor of the Daily Herald.

Readers of the Morning News will get scores and game summaries provided to the paper from other sources.

Readers still will see stories produced by the Deseret Morning News about players and coaches because they work for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the Owlz cannot block access to them.

"What we won't do is send credentialed writers and photographers to Owlz home games while the Owlz's threat is hanging over us," said Dave Schneider, the Morning News' sports editor.

Schneider said bowing to the threat would give the Owlz editorial control over the newspaper's content.

Jeff Katofsky, one of the owners of the baseball team, insisted in an e-mail to Schneider on Wednesday that the park be called the Home of the Owlz during Owlz games and said the Owlz have no legal or contractual obligation to call it the Brown Ballpark.

"If you chose to ban yourselves from the Home of the Owlz and deprive your readers of the happenings at the most beautiful and entertaining summer events in Utah Valley, that is your choice," Katofsky wrote. "However, I think you are better journalists and businessmen than that."

The Daily Herald has a sponsorship agreement with the Owlz in which free advertising is traded for tickets and banners advertising the Herald at games.

Herald publisher Craig Dennis said he doesn't have a plan for how to proceed with this sponsorship now that the paper will discontinue covering games.

"This all happened very quickly," he said.

Dennis said he is disappointed the team's management has not tried to talk to him.

"I would think they would be wanting to reach out to me at some point on this," Dennis said.