GM Pla– err, Rogers Arena…
October 9th, 2010
As of July 6th, 2010, the former General Motors Place has been renamed the Rogers Arena after Rogers Communications took sponsorship of the building that houses the Vancouver Canucks.
When I first heard of this news, I was quite surprised. I may have even laughed. For as long as I can remember, GM Place has always been GM Place. Honestly, I don’t even think I considered GM to represent General Motors, “GM Place” was just the name for the building I went to watch hockey games. I, as someone on the outside, do not think very much about the company who sponsors the building, so making the switch to Rogers Arena will definitely be an awkward one. I still call the Telus World of Science “Science World”, and the name has been changed for over 5 years now!
According to an article I found in The Vancouver Sun titled Rogers Plants Flag in B.C., the reason Rogers decided to sponsor the Canucks home was it would “demonstrate to everybody we’re committed to the West, committed to British Columbia” as well as “committed to the sport [of hockey]”. Ultimately, Rogers wants a larger share of the Western business market, emerging as a leader, and they believe having their name on the sports area will propel them to do just that. We’ll see.
According to another article, Rogers Arena new name for former General Motors Place, General Motors was paying an estimated $800,000 per year to sponsor the building. Hopefully Rogers’ efforts will pay off in the end.