We have gone from three Bear Mountains to one, and some people are relieved.
Not long ago, Victorians who could not navigate the West Shore without the help of GPS, a guide dog and Stew Young’s phone number would blithely drive to the golf course in search of the hockey rink or the stadium of the same name, unaware that all three were kilometres apart from one another.
The confusion eased a bit in 2012 when the Bear Mountain name disappeared from what became Westhills Stadium. Then, this week, Bear Mountain Arena became The Q Centre in a deal that will see the rink carry the radio station’s name for the next decade. The golf resort no longer sponsors either facility.
It’s not the last change we can expect locally. The Jim Pattison Group’s 10-year, $1.25 million contract for the naming rights to the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre expires this year. Whose name goes on the building next depends on the outcome of talks with arena operator RG Properties. “There are any number of ways it might work out,” Dave Dakers, the president of sports and entertainment for RG, said Friday.
Meanwhile, city council awaits a consultant’s report on plans to sell the name of the Victoria Conference Centre.
This is touchy stuff in Victoria (civic motto: “We fear change”) where plenty of people still don’t like slapping corporate names on civic facilities at all.
Really, though, that ship sailed long ago. When communist China has a Mercedes-Benz Arena, baseball fans enjoy sushi and sliders at the Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Bowl and soccer fans in Northwich, England watch games at Bargain Booze Stadium, you know it’s a global phenomenon and there’s no going back.
Indeed, unsponsored sports facilities are the exception. When a deal to retitle the New Orleans Arena as the Smoothie King Center was announced Wednesday, it left just two NBA venues — including New York’s Madison Square Garden — without corporate names.
People are still stunned that Christy Clark scuttled a 20-year, $35-million agreement to rename B.C. Place as Telus Park in 2012; that’s a lot of money for a barn without a major league tenant. (Though note it was estimated the Dallas Cowboys got up to $20 million US annually when selling the Cowboys Stadium rights to AT&T last year.) Even when a sponsor’s name replaces that of a local hero (as is the case in Ottawa, where Frank Clair Stadium is giving way to TD Place) the grumbling is muted.
Venues need not be 60,000-seaters. Langford has parlayed creative thinking, including the sale of naming rights, into a terrific cluster of recreational facilities at City Centre Park. The Westhills Stadium deal will bring the municipality $25,000 annually through 2018. Westhills pays an identical amount to keep its name on the adjacent ice arena through 2021. Eagle Ridge Development’s 10-year, $75,000 deal for the nearby dryland arena expires next year. Down the road at the Juan de Fuca rec complex, the Q Centre agreement is valued at $180,000 annually in cash and advertising
The question is where to draw the line when deciding what names to sell and to whom.
Sponsors now name not just sports venues, but events and teams. NASCAR races and PGA golf tournaments wear commercial brands. In college football, the Citrus Bowl became the Capital One Bowl and the Peach Bowl ripened into the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Pro soccer has the New York Red Bulls. Does that mean we’ll see the Toronto Maple Leaf Foods play for the Stanley Tools Cup?
Even schools and medical centres have got in on the act. A hospital in Estevan, Sask., just announced it will sell the rights to everything from the elevators to the maternity ward. Toy makers Mattel and Hasbro have their names on U.S. hospitals. Students at Hempfield High School in Pennsylvania can eat in the Wheatland Federal Credit Union Cafeteria before going to the Sylvan Learning guidance office or the Orthopedic Associates of Lancaster athletic trainers room.
It gets weirder: Two years ago, the debt-ridden Japanese town of Izumi-Sano offered to sell its name to a corporate sponsor. In 2004, Goldenpalace.com paid $650,000 to name a newly discovered species of Bolivian monkey. Maybe it was a gag, but an Australian couple briefly took to eBay to auction off the name of their unborn child.
There are limits. We’re just not sure where they are.
