K-ROCK SINGS WINNING TUNE Radio station awarded naming rights for new sports and entertainment centre Jordan Press – Kingston Whig-Standard The name of the new downtown sports and entertainment centre is music to the ears of the city.
Radio station K-Rock was awarded naming rights to the $46.5-million facility early this morning. The deal is worth $3.3 million over 10 years.
Councillors unanimously approved the deal despite heated debate about the terms of the agreement.
"It is unanimous. We have a name," deputy mayor Rob Matheson declared.
The leadup to the announcement, however, was riddled with questions. "I'm not going to lie to you," said Councillor Mark Gerretsen during discussion over the terms of the deal. "I'm not feeling good about it."
K-Rock wanted council to debate the merits of the agreement, and not the company itself.
"They feel the validity and the credibility of the company would be discussed," said project manager Lanie Hurdle.
"The candidate was clear that if council members are not interested in following the process that was outlined, they wouldn't be able to complete this process with the city."
The naming-rights agreement is worth $150,000 this year and escalates by three per cent for the next decade. As well, the winning company will provide $150,000 of products and services each year.
The company does have an out in the agreement. If benchmarks for attendance aren't met during the 10-year term of the agreement, the corporate sponsor could back out of the deal.
"This is a fairly standard clause," said Neil Shorthouse of Arcturus/SMG, the arena's private operator.
The identity of the company that has won the naming rights has been a closely guarded secret at City Hall. The only council member that has been made aware of the winning company was Mayor Harvey Rosen, who declared a conflict of interest in the matter. Rosen serves as president of Rosen Corporation, which he said has business dealings with the winning candidate.
Councillor Steve Garrison said he felt others on council should know with whom the city is dealing.
"If the mayor knows, why don't the rest of us know?" Garrison said. Hours before the meeting, councillors received a report from staff that the identity of the company that had won the naming rights would not become known until after council approved of the financial package.
If the name became public before political approval of the deal, the winning company would back out of the deal, staff wrote.
"The candidate has clearly expressed that he does not intend to pursue this agreement with the city should council receive the name of the company prior to approving the deal points within the agreement," staff wrote, "and secondly, if council reopens the discussion on the award of naming rights once the name of the company is known."
Releasing the identity of the winning company prior to approval could damage the city's ability to land a corporate sponsor for the downtown arena, the report noted. Other companies that expressed an interest in purchasing the naming rights have told city staff that they weren't interested in pursuing the rights if their names became public too early in the process.
In early 2007, city council approved a two-step process for approving the naming rights.
The first step involved the financial package for the agreement coming before council for approval without a name attached. The second step had council approve the name of the facility with the public giving input on the suffix to the name.
"It was clear that the intent was not to provide the candidate's name until council approved the deal points," staff wrote. "This process was to implemented to allow the company to withdraw should council deem that the proposed agreement was not in the best interest of the City."
City staff and consultants were given the task of finding a company that was "ethically and morally acceptable." The report noted that as long as the company met council requirements, "it is irrelevant which company actually purchases the name." |