Everett Events Center has new name

Published 11:24 pm Thursday, August 23, 2007

EVERETT — The Everett Events Center reached a naming-rights deal Thursday with Comcast Corp. that will plaster the company’s name all over the building, from the marquee to trash cans to souvenir cups.

The nation’s largest cable service provider will pay $7.4 million over the next decade in cash and advertising under the deal.

In exchange, the building that has breathed new life into downtown Everett since it opened four years ago will be called Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center the first year of the contract, then Comcast Arena at Everett for the remaining nine years.

Under the deal, Comcast’s payments to the Events Center will average $340,000 a year. It will also provide about $400,000 annually in advertising to promote the 10,000-seat arena, which is home to the Western Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips hockey team.

“This is a major investment for us,” said John Dietrich, a regional vice president for Philadelphia-based Comcast. “We want to be a partner with the city in terms of growing the economy.”

The new name will be up on the Event Center’s marquee by the time the puck drops on the Silvertips opening game in late September. The deal was approved Thursday by the facilities district that oversees the Events Center.

Everett City Councilman Mark Olson, who is also on the Events Center’s board, said he believed it was important that the Events Center keep Everett in its name.

“I’ve always maintained that it needs to stay Everett,” Olson said. “Our justification for building and maintaining the facility in the first place was to make (downtown Everett) a destination.”

The advertising that Comcast provides under the contract will be a boon for Everett, he said. “It won’t just draw attention to the facility it will also draw attention to the city,” Olson said.

The Events Center planned to sell naming rights to the arena all along. It was part of the business plan. The city hoped the Events Center could get a half million dollars for naming rights, but that was four years ago.

Other companies “kicked the tires,” but none stepped up with corporate sponsorship, said Kim Bedier, Events Center general manager.

In 2006, more than 700,000 visitors came to watch more than two dozen Silvertips games and a mix of concerts that included the Black-Eyed Peas, Barenaked Ladies and Mexican superstar Juan Gabriel.

The Everett Events Center opened in October 2003 and has been credited with attracting new shops and customers to Everett’s downtown, which had been deteriorating for a number of years.

It features an arena that can sit 8,300 for hockey games and can be expanded to 10,000 seats for concerts. It also has a community ice rink and a conference center.

According to the contract, the center will place the Comcast logo on “How You Doin’” buttons worn by the center employees, on the main entrances and on signs posted along I-5.

As part of the deal, the Events Center cannot take any advertising from any of Comcast’s competitors for 10 years.

Comcast will provide free premium cable and Internet service including pay-per-view for the luxury boxes and elsewhere throughout the Events Center.

Comcast, which has nearly 1,000 employees in Snohomish County, will also get the use of a luxury box and offer discounted tickets to its employees.

The contract can be altered if the average annual attendance dips below 270,000 or holds fewer than 80 events.

Global Spectrum, which manages the Events Center, negotiated the naming deal. Global Spectrum is owned by Comcast.

The facilities district had the contract independently reviewed by an Everett accountant to make sure it was a good deal for taxpayers, Olson said.

Comcast in 2003 came close to a similar naming deal with the Tacoma Dome, but it fell through following complaints about how the negotiations were handled.

Comcast has a franchise agreement to provide cable service to Everett residents. That deal runs through 2009.

The Events Center was built after the city created a special district that sold bonds to build the $71.5 million entertainment complex in downtown Everett at 2000 Hewitt Ave. The facilities district has a three-member board that is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council.