VIRGINIA BEACH, VA—Defiantly refusing to call the concert venue by the current title appearing on its facade and in promotional materials, Virginia Beach locals confirmed to reporters Tuesday their city’s renamed arena will always be the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater to them. “Verizon Wireless Amphitheater is the name I grew up with, and that’s what I’m alway going to call it. Period,” said Kevin DiClaudio, 25, claiming that the people in charge of the arena had to be “out of their minds” if they thought he was going to start referring to the venue as the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater after all these years, seeing as how everyone in town and throughout the greater Hampton Roads area knew it by its previous moniker. “People won’t even know what I’m talking about if I use that new name. But if I say Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, it brings up all these memories. It’s where we go see the fireworks every year. It’s where my dad took me to a Jimmy Buffett concert when I was young. You can’t just go changing history like that.” DiClaudio later added that he still couldn’t bring himself to visit the rebranded Food Lion over on Sandbridge Road, saying he wanted to respect the property’s long, rich history as a Bloom supermarket.

Advertisement