What’s in a name?

The D.C. Eagle’s naming rights are for sale, but is the price worth it?

After the failure of the D.C Eagle, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia hired an auctioneer to sell the naming rights to the business.

As of today, the bidding price topped $4,000 for the “tradename, logo, domain name, website, Facebook page and other social media access.”

Washington D.C. Eagle Drag Shows.

This is probably a waste of money for someone, but the business reasons for buying the D.C. Eagle name are:

1. Earned media: The price may be worth it if the free publicity generated by the sale and reopening of the D.C. Eagle exceeds the bidding price — the gay publications will give more coverage to the “reopening of the Eagle” than the “opening of a random gay bar.”
2. Defensive move: An existing bar may buy the name of the D.C. Eagle to prevent its revival. This only makes sense for Uproar and Green Lantern, which serve similar clientele.
3. Name recognition: The “Eagle” is widely recognized as a gay bar name, so the new D.C. Eagle will have to do less work to establish their brand.

Drag queen Brooklyn Heights hosting at the D.C. Eagle Bar.

Many drag nights at the D.C. Eagle were poorly attended.

Here are the reasons not to buy the D.C. Eagle name:

1. You’re not getting much: The only thing for sale is the naming rights of the business — not the building, business/liquor license, or inventory. Plus, “Eagle” is such a generic name that you may be able to name a bar the “Arlington Eagle,” or “Potomac Eagle,” without dishing out the funds.
2. Baggage: Any new D.C. Eagle will be automatically compared to (and associated with) the prior iterations of the establishment. Also, with Eagles repeatedly failing in D.C. and Baltimore, why associate a new bar with that baggage? When people Google the business name, all of the terrible articles will resurface.
3. Expectations: There are Eagles in most major U.S. cities, and although these bars are usually not affiliated, they create a collective brand. However, the problem this collective brand is: “leather/fetish bar for aging white men.” Fair or not, that brand makes it very hard to pivot to a different clientele and will turn off many customers.

The D.C. Eagle struggled to attract a younger crowd for this very reason. The Baltimore Eagle had a similar identity crisis because people have fixed ideas of what an “Eagle” is supposed to be.

I am very interested to see what happens with the D.C. Eagle’s naming rights, and whether someone actually gives this business another try. 🦅