Quebec sells arena naming rights for $33M
Posted March 1, 2011 4:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
QUEBEC — Quebec City has announced a name for the not-yet-built arena that will be home to its not-yet-existant NHL team: it will be called the Videotron amphitheatre.
The city’s mayor has announced that the arena will be named after the Quebec cable provider following a deal with its parent company, the media giant Quebecor.
Mayor Regis Labeaume says the company will pay $33 million for naming rights for 25 years, another $3 million annually for the right to manage the building, and also 15 per cent of profits from the facility.
In return, the arena will be built entirely with taxpayers’ money; since Ottawa has, so far, not agreed to get involved the estimated $400 million could come exclusively from provincial and city coffers.
Financial terms announced today are specific to the building. Profits from any future NHL team would be separate.
Quebecor, which owns the Sun media chain in English Canada, has long expressed interest in bringing NHL hockey back to the provinicial capital, which lost the Nordiques 15 years ago.
But funding for the project has been mired in uncertainty since last summer, when the idea of a federally-funded arena touched off a political furore across the country.
As part of the deal, Quebecor has promised to make the building available 30 days each year for cultural events.
