Motivation about arena is a mystery

We've had a week now to get used to the house that Larry H. built changing its name from the Delta Center to the EnergySolutions Arena, but what I still can't figure is why a company that specializes in disposing of low-level nuclear waste would want to put its name on anything in Utah, let alone a basketball arena.

I could understand Delta Air Lines, at least before its mounting debt problems, wanting to pay to have its name on what amounts to Utah's biggest billboard, just as I can understand Pepsi wanting to be on the Denver NBA arena and Compaq on the Houston arena and American Airlines on the Dallas arena and Staples wanting to have its name on the building where both the Lakers and the Clippers play.

These are businesses that advertise everywhere because people everywhere are potential customers.

But why does a garbage dump that caters to a rather specialized and limited clientele feel the need to advertise to the masses?

It's not like we can take our old mattresses out there.

And why does the Utah Jazz want to name its arena after a garbage dump?

Well, other than the million-plus a year the garbage dump is paying for the privilege.

So, OK, I sort of get the Jazz's motivation, even though there were reportedly other bidders they could have chosen from.

And it does seem a stretch when Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment president Dennis Haslam says, "EnergySolutions has the same kinds of ideals that we have."

What does that mean? EnergySolutions also pays its employees 1,000 percent above the minimum wage, charges $9 for an order of nachos and a small Coke, and wants desperately to win an NBA title?

But the real mystery is EnergySolution's motivation.

Why would a company in an industry that traditionally keeps a low profile want such a strong public pronouncement?

Especially when it is in that end of the industry that dumps nuclear waste.

I personally am a big fan of nuclear energy and recognize the need to judiciously dispose of its waste.

And from what I have been told by physicists I think it is completely safe to dump nuclear waste and I have no problem with it being dumped in Utah. In fact, I think the state should get involved in the process and help build a lot of schools and raise teachers' salaries — and build gymnasiums as opposed to naming them — with the potential profits.