Canucks arena GM Place renamed Rogers Arena

VANCOUVER — The home of the Vancouver Canucks will now be known as Rogers Arena, officials announced Tuesday.

Toronto-based Rogers Communications will take over the naming rights from General Motors.

The National Hockey League arena has been known as GM Place since the building opened in 1995, when GM signed a 20-year deal with the team.

The move to take over the arena’s naming rights comes as the Canucks’ broadcast rights is set to expire.

Rogers owns national cable TV channel Rogers Sportsnet and local radio station News1130. In Toronto, Rogers owns the Major League Baseball Blue Jays and sports talk radio station The FAN 590.

One of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, Rogers features cellular telephone, cable TV, high-speed Internet, home phone and other media products. In its most recent financial quarter, ending March 31, Rogers reported its revenues had grown five per cent over the previous quarter to $2.9 billion.

Telus, based in nearby Burnaby, B.C., was also involved in negotiations for the naming rights.

A spokesman for the company said they could not accept the deal the Canucks offered — putting an end to the two-decade relationship between the Canucks and Telus.

“We evaluate sponsorships and naming rights for public venues against a set of criteria to ensure good return to our investors as well as our community,” said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall. “The proposal they put forward did not meet our needs.”

Telus lost out to Bell as the telecommunications sponsor for the 2010 Olympic Games.

Click to expand...