Oakdale Theater Has a New Ride

In a press release yesterday, Live Nation announced that it has entered into an agreement with Toyota that will give the car company sponsorship rights to Wallingford’s Oakdale Theater, as well as Comcast Theater (formerly The Meadows) in Hartford. The new name of the Oakdale Theater is now “Toyota Presents Oakdale Theater”.

“The Connecticut Toyota Dealers Association is thrilled to support these two hugely popular regional theaters,” said Stephen Zion, president of the Connecticut Toyota Dealers and Toyota of Wallingford. Jim Koplik, chairman of Live Nation’s Northeast region, agreed: “I am particularly pleased to have Toyota as key partners in our continued efforts to bring the top entertainment to Connecticut,” he said.

The sponsorship agreement includes the right to have Toyota vehicles on display at both Toyota Presents Oakdale and also at Comcast Theater, as well as Jumbotron and theater signage, displays, logos on tickets and theater collateral.

What’s In a Name?

Well, in this case it just means that everyone will continue to call it “The Oakdale”, just like they always have. When they changed the name to the Chevrolet Theater, there were a few who honored the new moniker, but most did not. Now it will be easy for everyone to just drop the “Toyota Presents” part and say “Let’s go to The Oakdale tonight!” Hopefully, no one gets the bright idea to shorten the name to an acronym, like “TPOT“. Can you hear it now? “Let’s go to the TeaPot tonight!”.

Um…no.

It really doesn’t matter whose name is over the door, whether it’s Chevrolet or Toyota or Rolls Royce, for that matter. For us locals one thing is certain: Oakdale it was, Oakdale it always will be.

Carry on.

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Wallingford’s Oakdale Theater Changes Names…Again

UPDATE 12/12/09: See new blog post regarding Oakdale name change HERE.

UPDATE 12/11/09: we’ve seen news reports that Oakdale is now “Toyota Presents Oakdale Theater”. We believe the Toyota reference points to Wallingford Toyota being the venue’s new sponsor, but that is unconfirmed. We’ll post more information as it becomes available.

Funny what you find out by listening to the radio…

While listening to a local radio station today (DRC 102.9 FM), we heard DJ Larry Wells mention during a commercial that The Steve Miller band would be at the Oakdale Theater tonight, November 7th. Then he said, “…that’s right, it’s back to the Oakdale…”. This took us by surprise, as we’ve suffered through all the name changes of the Oakdale over the years, but we still called it “Oakdale” through them all.

Anyway, this is big news in these parts, as the Oakdale has been around since it was a tent pitched in a field on July 3, 1954, and called the Oakdale Summer Theater. So I did a little detective work, which turned up the (unofficial) news that Chevrolet has pulled its sponsorship of the venue. Without the umbrella of a sponsor to give it a name, the only thing they could do was go back to calling it Oakdale Theater again, and this change was effective on October 30th.

I was told that there should be an official announcement coming from the Oakdale management shortly, so maybe then we’ll find out what prompted Chevy’s pull-out, and also whether or not the name change will be permanent. If another sponsor steps in the name Oakdale could be changed yet again, so we’ll enjoy it while it lasts. Anyway, to the locals who patronize the theater, it will always be just, “The Oakdale”.

Watch this post for future updates to this story as they become available.

(Update 11/9/09: Mary Ellen Godin of the Meriden Record-Journal has confirmed this news: http://bit.ly/eii7F)

Post from: Wallingford Wired©2009 by Pat & Wayne Harriman

Wallingford’s Chevrolet Theater is Oakdale Theater Again