In a unique advertising move, the St. Petersburg Times last week purchased the naming rights to Tampa's Ice Palace, which will now be known as the "St. Pete Times Forum." The newspaper will pay $2.1 million annually, plus other concessions, for the right to put its name on the old Ice Palace arena.

While generations of reporters have been instructed never to call the newspaper "St. Pete Times" in favor of the more dignified St. Petersburg Times, the name will be conspicuous for a hockey stadium in the heart of downtown Tampa, ostensibly the home of a different newspaper. Thus, a coup was born.

Naming rights are, of course, nothing new. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have both put their names on large venues.

In a larger sense, most of the place names we know bear some mark of ownership, even if only symbolic. Plant City was named after Henry B. Plant; Flagler County took its name to honor Henry M. Flagler; and our own Leon County is supposed to glorify Juan Ponce de Leon.

The difference between honoring history and auctioning naming rights is, however, a matter of money. Lots of money.

As a result, people who need publicity are tripping over themselves to find people who need money. It's a symbiotic relationship, really, one that bloomed to full life in the 1996 novel "Infinite Jest." Writer David Foster Wallace envisioned a not-too-distant future when everything from private automobiles to the years would be sponsored by corporate advertisers.

This idea merits some thought.

Our Capitol building seems like a fine place to start. How does the Associated Industries Annex sound? Jeb could probably live with that.

Then we could auction naming rights to Florida State University ("Nike U." sounds about right), the Five Points intersection (Sheffield Auto & Truck Body Shop might be willing to sponsor) and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (Pfizer).

Internationally, United States foreign policy would be showing its true colors by adopting a corporate sponsor such as Exxon or Ernst & Young. Perhaps our energy policy should be called the Halliburton Plan. The War on Drugs could be sponsored by Marlboro or Budweiser.

Then again, maybe not.

Consider those "Let's Roll" FSU shirts that are now selling here in Tallahassee. Sure, a dollar --- yes, a whole dollar --- per shirt will be donated to the Beamer Foundation. But what about the rest of the loot gained from FSU's licensing rights? Will money be going to workers in Atlixo, Mexico, where child labor, verbal abuse and corruption among union officials have been eliminated because of the Worker Rights Consortium? We'll never know because Sandy D'Alemberte has refused to join the coalition of more than 100 other colleges and universities.

Similarly, the money is hard to follow in Tampa.

What are the details of the 12-year agreement? Newspaper executives wanted to keep them secret until a Hillsborough County commissioner put the newspaper in the unusual position of defending secrecy. Even now, questions remain about what kind of coverage the newspaper will give the Forum.

Despite what is taught in Arthur Andersen classroom at FSU's College of Business (204 Rovetta Business Building), not everything is for sale. When a name is licensed to a T-shirt or a stadium, there is more at stake than making a quick buck or increasing a quarterly profit margin.

Reputations are more valuable than brands. Once they're lost, it's difficult to buy them back.

This column has been brought to you by Mike Pope, who may be reached at 599-2173 or via e-mail at mpope@taldem.com.