Sports journalists, who are less important than we think and less accurate than we should be, have a series of learned vices, platitudes and catchphrases that we repeat out of inertia, even when they don’t tally with reality. Beyond the clichés of a lifetime (“match of life or death,” “it’s a final,” “there’s no little rival”), which are now mutating into ultra-baroque terms through the imposition of fashion (“block low,” ” intervals’ or ‘lateralization’), journalists have become accustomed to completely mispronouncing the names of different teams’ stadiums. And in this surprising new way, the name of Atlético de Madrid’s stadium takes a dubious honor. Years ago, the firm ‘Wanda’ reached an agreement on the ‘naming’ of the mattress club’s new stadium, but for some unknown reason neither a large proportion of the fans who are not from Atleti (normally) nor a overwhelming majority of journalism (surreal), seem to realize that the Atleti stadium is not the ‘Wanda’. Due to ignorance, inertia or lack of accuracy, sports journalism continues to refer to the Atleti field simply as ‘Wanda’. Through laziness, neglect, ignorance or a simple matter of profound ignorance. The fact is that the Atleti field is not called ‘Wanda’, and has never been called that, but the staff insists that every weekend there is a game at ‘Wanda’. Because?
It has been months since the Atleti stadium changed sponsors with the ‘naming’ of the stadium. It is no longer ‘Wanda’ Metropolitano, but ‘Cívitas Metropolitano’. Apparently neither journalism wants to find out nor pretends to. They continue as Paco Martínez Soria, as in ‘Don Erre que Erre’, and call the Atleti field whatever they want. ‘Wanda’, because it’s shorter; ‘Wanda’, because it sounds better to them; ‘Wanda’, because they got used to it; and “Wanda,” because no one cares. But the fact is that Atleti’s field is the Metropolitan. That was, is and will always be his name. And when X company pays for a deal, it will bear that commercial company’s name in the foreground. But the name of the Atleti stadium is Metropolitano. It’s not the Wanda. Neither does the ‘Cívitas’. It’s the ‘Metropolitan Civitas’. Or else the Metropolitan, because that name does not depend on commercial agreements. Is it so hard to learn the name of a stadium? It seems that it is. You read, listen and see dozens of journalists who still don’t know the name of the stadium after years. And it attracts attention. Reluctant? Lack of attention? Confusion?
The issue, which may seem like a neural of the person writing this, is very simple. Nobody refers to Camp Nou as ‘Spotify’, despite the ‘naming agreement’ the Barça club has signed with the music company. No one referred to the Real Sociedad stadium by its sponsor’s name, ignoring that it will always be Anoeta, whatever name it has. And if the Bernabéu becomes ‘Cepsa Bernabéu’ one day, you will not hear any journalist say that they report from ‘Cepsa’, simply. Regardless of how much that sponsor pays. The question is why the Atleti field is still called ‘Wanda’ when it is no longer called that? There is not an Atlético fan or if you hurry me, of any other team, whose head doesn’t play tricks on them and the unconscious leads them to refer to the Atleti stadium as the Calderón. That is understandable. Also for journalism. What’s wrong, as the “streamers” and “youtubers” would say now, is that journalists keep calling a stadium that’s not so called “Wanda” anymore, which in reality has always been the Metropolitan. Is it so hard to pronounce the name of the Atleti stadium correctly? Well, apparently it seems so. It will be a matter of insistence. It’s simple: Metropolitan.
Reuben Uria
Source: Goal