This is never a good idea.
Want to give the name of a prominent person to a civic facility?
Wait until that person is dead. So you don’t look silly if/when that living person does something stupid/immoral/illegal.
And when that person is an athlete … be doubly as cautious.
The government of Madeira has ignored that advice, apparently still revved up about Portugal’s first international championship — the 2016 European tournament.
Effective today, the Madeira International Airport has been renamed for the island’s most famous citizen.
It now shall be known as … Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, named after the Portugal and Real Madrid star.
Oh, what a bad idea.
Cristiano Ronaldo has not gotten himself into any major trouble, so far; it’s not like he was given a jail sentence for cheating on his taxes, like Lionel Messi was. (Not that Messi will do any time in prison.)
It’s not like he has some huge scandal in his past.
It’s just that he presumably has lot of time and lots of opportunity to do something — or several somethings.
Things potentially so awful that it will be an embarrassment to Madeira and the city of Funchal when all those tourists arrive via … Cristiano Ronaldo Airport.
It also says something unflattering about Madeira, which is part of Portugal, that the locals apparently feel as if they have no one better to name an airport after.
(Does New York have a Babe Ruth Expressway? Does San Diego have a Ted Williams Airport?)
A Roman Catholic saint known as Catarina once had her name on the airport, but she has been replaced by, yes, a soccer player.
A vain soccer player.
A particularly vain soccer player.
Miguel Albuquerque, president of the regional government, made the announcement yesterday. According to the Spanish newspaper AS, Albuquerque said “the decision is an acknowledgement to the services and high profile the Real Madrid player has brought to the region.”
The decision was made the same day as the opening of Cristiano Ronaldo’s hotel, known as the Pestana CR7 Hotel.
(“CR7” is the player’s nickname, made up of his initials and his jersey number.)
And the hotel is just around the corner from the CR7 museum, which celebrates the preening, forever tan scoring star.
I have no problem with Ronaldo names on a hotel he owns and a museum he has filled with his stuff and his soccer achievements.
But it is a bad idea to name a piece of your infrastructure after a guy who may yet turn out to be a guy his hometown might want to keep at arm’s length.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Doug // Jul 23, 2016 at 4:00 PM
Actually Paul, San Diego does have a freeway (The 56) named after Ted Williams. It runs from Torrey Pines to Carmel Mountain Ranch and connects The 5 and The 15 and then ends in Poway. It was even built and named while Ted was still alive in 1992, though he was into his 70s by then and unlikely to cause any scandals. Having noted all this, I must agree it is not a great idea to name an airport after CR7 who is an astoundingly arrogant and probably has decades to do something incredibly stupid.
2 Gene // Jul 23, 2016 at 9:50 PM
NYC does have a Joe DiMaggio Highway (though no one uses that name—it is the Westside Highway to any real NYer) and a Jackie Robinson Expressway (a name that is used). Neither was alive when the highways were renamed though.
NYC has recently taken to renaming bridges and tunnels that had excellent (and useful) geographic meanings for dead politicians. The old Triboro Bridge (connecting the Boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx and Queens) is now the RFK Bridge, the old Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (connecting Brooklyn and the Battery (the tip of Manhattan) is now the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and the Queensboro Bridge (or alternatively the 59th Street Bridge) running from Manhattan to Queens on 59th Street in Manhattan is now the Edward I. Koch Bridge.
In the past, NYers resisted using the new names, but these seem to be sticking. One way to immediately identify tourists has always been when they ask for directions to Avenue of the Americas instead of to 6th Avenue. Even though the name was changed to Avenue of the Americas 75 years ago, no real NYer would ever breath that name (nor would a real NYer ever pronounce Houston Street as in the Texas city (it is “How-ston Street”).
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