GM Place in Vancouver Retires Naming Rights in Favor of Communications Company

GM Place, General Motors Place, Hockey Canada Arena or "The Garage". Whatever you call it, the place that the NHL's Vancouver Canucks that called home. But since GM is undergoing a government stretching, the advertising rights to the arena had to expire. And the communications giant Rogers is going to pick up the rights to seal off their name recognition on both ends of the country.

"Rogers is an industry leader and innovator focused on enhancing customer experiences and fostering community partnerships. Our Arena is where we engage our loyal fans and host our most important partners; we are thrilled to have Rogers as an integral partner in our business."

But not only is this arena bearing the Rogers name brand, but they also have one of the biggest stadiums in Canada. It would be like if SafeCo Field in Seattle suddenly got outbid by WB or Turner Broadcasting and called Turner Park or something similar to the Atlanta field.

Rogers is no stranger to the sports landscape in Canada, owning the Toronto Blue Jays, Rogers Centre and national sports network Rogers Sportsnet.

If Rogers can spend this amount of time and effort on acquiring naming rights, just how much time are they actually paying attention to their baseball team this season.

But since the GM Motors place is no longer it's name, I wonder what they are going to call it now. "The Garage" was a pretty clever name. "The Communications Hub" or something?

[Via: Rogers Sportsnet]