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True North and MTS Allstream agree on 10-year naming rights deal for MTS Centre in Winnipeg

Katz

Winnipeg hockey supporters cheer at a rally in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, May 31, 2011, following the announcement that the Atlanta Thrashers NHL hockey club are moving to the city. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, David Lipnowski)

AP

It’s good to get in on the ground floor of a deal it seems.

True North and MTS Allstream, a telecom company based in Winnipeg, have carved out an agreement to continue with the naming rights for the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. The deal is set to run through 2021 and while no financial figures were made available to the press for how much its worth, the impending arrival of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg where they’ll call the MTS Centre home drove up the cost for continuing with the deal. Given that MTS is a local company, the deal works out nicely for community relations as well as for deepening wallets.

The arena has been called the MTS Centre since it opened in 2004 and now with an NHL tenant about to call it home, MTS is about to get a lot more exposure thanks to the Thrashers moving into town. As for what the name of the team will be that will be calling the MTS Centre home, that’s still yet to be determined and the folks at True North are wavering on when that announcement will be made.

True North president Jim Ludlow had this to say about the impending announcement of what the Winnipeg hockey club will be called.

As for the new team’s name, Ludlow is no longer predicting it will come before Tuesday’s NHL board of governors meeting, where the sale of the Thrashers to True North is expected to be approved.

He’s not even predicting a name before the NHL draft next Friday.

“That’s tough -- unlikely -- possible, but there are a number of issues,” he said.

“We just have to manage our way through and, whether it’s next week or the following week, get to the point where we can make the right decision and the right announcement at the right time.”


That’s a lot of fretting going on.

One thing’s for sure, if the team doesn’t have a name by the time the NHL Draft kicks off next Friday night it might be a bit odd handing their first draft pick a sweater and cap with nothing on it. Of course, they could also just stop fiddling around and just call the team the Jets and be done with it.

That’s our not-so subtle hint for the day. At the very least, the building they’ll be playing in will have a name even if the team doesn’t have one yet.