Augusta Residents Fight to Keep James Brown’s Name on New Arena

Thousands of Augusta citizens have put their names on a petition to keep the Godfather of Soul's name on the city's main venue, while officials consider selling naming rights for the new building.

Mayor Garnett Johnson asked Coliseum Authority chairman Cedric Johnson to talk to the Augusta Commission about the name change on Tuesday. "The frequent use of 'the New James Brown Arena' in describing the facility and 'James Brown Arena' in the artist renderings reasonably led the commission, but more importantly the voters, to conclude that the name of honoring one of Augusta's favored citizens would not change," said Johnson, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

At a May meeting, Oak View Group (OVG), the project managers, used "New Augusta Arena" in their slides. They mentioned plans to sell naming rights to businesses willing to pay.

The soul singer's daughter, Deanna Brown, started the push to keep the family name. Support grows daily on change.org, where signatures keep mounting.

While Katie Berube from OVG says companies want to buy naming rights, she won't say which ones. The mystery buyers remain unknown to the public.