Milwaukee Convention Center to Now Carry “Delta Airlines” Name

We couldn’t get a Milwaukee-based com­pany will­ing to put down the coin for nam­ing rights?  Man, that’s depressing.

Down­town Milwaukee’s Fron­tier Air­lines Cen­ter appar­ently will be replac­ing “Fron­tier” in its moniker with “Delta.”

Delta Air Lines Inc., which is increas­ing its oper­a­tions at Mitchell Inter­na­tional Air­port, has reached an agree­ment to pur­chase the con­ven­tion center’s nam­ing rights, accord­ing to two sources famil­iar with the pend­ing transaction.

“I know it’s in the works,” said one source, who spoke only on the con­di­tion of not being identified.

Delta spokes­woman Chris Kelly declined to com­ment, cit­ing a cor­po­rate pol­icy of not dis­cussing rumors.

Franklyn Gim­bel, board chair­man of the Wis­con­sin Cen­ter Dis­trict, which owns and oper­ates the con­ven­tion cen­ter, said recently that an agree­ment has been reached with a new nam­ing rights part­ner for the last year of the cur­rent agree­ment with Fron­tier Airlines.

Also, Gim­bel said nego­ti­a­tions are ongo­ing for an addi­tional five years with the new naming-rights part­ner. He declined to iden­tify the new part­ner, but said he hoped it would be revealed by the end of August.

Dur­ing its 14-year exis­tence, down­town Milwaukee’s con­ven­tion cen­ter has always been named for an airline.

Not to self: Get that Delta Fre­quent Flyer pro­gram card now that they’re increas­ing their pres­ence at Mitchell.

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