How the home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors got its new name

[Fenway]

What I find interesting is they wanted to make the name of the arena as bland as possible to focus on the sponsor.

How the home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors got its new name - Sportsnet.ca

MLSE and Scotiabank considered a handful of new names, including Scotiabank Gardens, which would’ve been a nod to downtown’s historic Maple Leaf Gardens, now part Loblaws grocery store, part Ryerson University athletic facility.

"In Toronto, the Gardens is a bit of hallowed ground," said Doig, who reminded that MLG never had corporate sponsorship. "Part of the city would’ve said, ‘You dirty bastards.’ "

The parties were also concerned that "Scotiabank Gardens" would get abbreviated in conversation to "The Gardens," the way Boston’s TD Garden is "The Garden."

Invoking the spirit of epic boxing matches and historic bullfights, Doig says, "Big things happen in arenas."

Hopkinson likes how uninteresting "Scotiabank Arena" sounds. That’s intentional, to make the sponsor the default slang.

Click to read more...

 

[aqib]

People will still call it ACC. Just like most people still call the baseball stadium "Skydome"

 

[Killion]

People will still call it ACC. Just like most people still call the baseball stadium "Skydome"

Yet if you should make the mistake of calling that yellow bricked deco building at Carlton & Church Streets that now houses a Loblaws & some of Ryerson's sports facilities including the "Mattamy Homes Rink" up in the rafters "Maple Leaf Gardens"..... and some Legal Beagle from MLSE should God Forbid overhear you calling it that... be prepared to be served with papers & sued silly aqib.

 

[Fenway]

Yet if you should make the mistake of calling that yellow bricked deco building at Carlton & Church Streets that now houses a Loblaws & some of Ryerson's sports facilities including the "Mattamy Homes Rink" up in the rafters "Maple Leaf Gardens"..... and some Legal Beagle from MLSE should God Forbid overhear you calling it that... be prepared to be served with papers & sued silly aqib.

The marquee is still there

 

[Killion]

The marquee is still there...

Interesting. I havent been by there in years, figured they'd have pulled it down. Perhaps a historical designation & requirement by the City of Toronto?... Dunno. But it does my heart good to see that. Brings back a flood of memories.... as did your posts of the Habs artwork panels at the Carlton Subway Station... Frans Restaurant & so on that you put up recently elsewhere.... hadnt thought of those things or places in a long time.

 

[Gnashville]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

That's how it got it's name

 

[Fenway]

Inteyresting. I havent been by there in years, figured they'd have pulled it down. Perhaps a historical designation & requirement by the City of Toronto?... Dunno. But it does my heart good to see that. Brings back a flood of memories.... as did your posts of the Habs artwork panels at the Carlton Subway Station... Frans Restaurant & so on that you put up recently elsewhere.... hadnt thought of those things or places in a long time.

Will stray a little off topic but the Habs artwork on the Toronto subway is untouched by graffiti - if the Boston subway did that for the Habs or Yankees it wouldn't last a day. Says a lot about Toronto.

It is true that nobody in Boston refers to the arena as TD Garden - in fact most Bostonians have no idea what TD stands for except they know of TD Bank. Chase Bank in New York spends heavily on Madison Square Garden but what Scotiabank is spending in Toronto is staggering.

 

[rojac]

People will still call it ACC. Just like most people still call the baseball stadium "Skydome"

I’ll call it Scotiabank Arena because that will be its name just like I primarily call the former Skydome Rogers Centre, although I occasionally use a generic “the dome”. But this may stem from being a technical writer for over 20 years. You get used to referring things by their official names and dealing with those official names sometimes changing.

 

[Pilky01]

Hopkinson likes how uninteresting "Scotiabank Arena" sounds. That’s intentional, to make the sponsor the default slang.

I understand the intention, but I think they might have overshot and made it a little too generic. For one, the Scotiabank Arena is in Ottawa, no? Second, "the ACC" is a good shortform. There is simply no short form for 'Scotiabank Arena'.

Will kids today grow up and in ten years time casually refer to it as "Scotiabank Arena"....maybe.

While Scotabank Gardens would definitely be shortened to simply "the Gardens", I think the good will that name would have ingratiated, combined with the fact that people (and most specifically media partners) will still call it by its full name from time to time, would have added up to better brand awareness and identity than explicitly choosing the most generic name possible.

 

[Fenway]

Hopkinson likes how uninteresting "Scotiabank Arena" sounds. That’s intentional, to make the sponsor the default slang.

I understand the intention, but I think they might have overshot and made it a little too generic. For one, the Scotiabank Arena is in Ottawa, no? Second, "the ACC" is a good shortform. There is simply no short form for 'Scotiabank Arena'.

Will kids today grow up and in ten years time casually refer to it as "Scotiabank Arena"....maybe.

While Scotabank Gardens would definitely be shortened to simply "the Gardens", I think the good will that name would have ingratiated, combined with the fact that people (and most specifically media partners) will still call it by its full name from time to time, would have added up to better brand awareness and identity than explicitly choosing the most generic name possible.

Scotiabank ended their Ottawa deal a couple of years ago ( most likely because they wanted Toronto) so Ottawa is now Canadian Tire Centre

 

[Pilky01]

Scotiabank ended their Ottawa deal a couple of years ago ( most likely because they wanted Toronto) so Ottawa is now Canadian Tire Centre

A great example of the "value" these sponsorships hold.

 

[rent free]

Yet if you should make the mistake of calling that yellow bricked deco building at Carlton & Church Streets that now houses a Loblaws & some of Ryerson's sports facilities including the "Mattamy Homes Rink" up in the rafters "Maple Leaf Gardens"..... and some Legal Beagle from MLSE should God Forbid overhear you calling it that... be prepared to be served with papers & sued silly aqib.

ilsa

 

[LeHab]

Scotiabank ended their Ottawa deal a couple of years ago ( most likely because they wanted Toronto) so Ottawa is now Canadian Tire Centre

Apparently Melnyk opted out of the deal before term.

Canadian Tire puts its name on Ottawa Senators’ arena

Initial deal was signed in 2006 for 15 years 20m total but was terminated after 2012-13 season. Even for a hole like Ottawa and accounting for inflation that sounds low.

 

[htpwn]

The marquee is still there

Better: They went back to the 1950's marquee. Looks a lot classier, IMO. All in all, they did a pretty good job given the limitations placed on the building's sale by ML$E. The exterior was restored and probably looks better now than any at any point since at least the 1960's (given Ballard's neglect). The Athletic Centre was a coup for Ryerson University, which otherwise wouldn't be able to secure facilities like that in its Downtown campus. And most importantly, hockey is still played under the roof, albeit three stories up from the original surface. The grocery store is unfortunate, but even still... a far kinder fate than the Forum de Montréal received.

Hopkinson likes how uninteresting "Scotiabank Arena" sounds. That’s intentional, to make the sponsor the default slang.

I understand the intention, but I think they might have overshot and made it a little too generic. For one, the Scotiabank Arena is in Ottawa, no? Second, "the ACC" is a good shortform. There is simply no short form for 'Scotiabank Arena'.

Will kids today grow up and in ten years time casually refer to it as "Scotiabank Arena"....maybe.

While Scotabank Gardens would definitely be shortened to simply "the Gardens", I think the good will that name would have ingratiated, combined with the fact that people (and most specifically media partners) will still call it by its full name from time to time, would have added up to better brand awareness and identity than explicitly choosing the most generic name possible.

"We made the name boring and a mouthful to force fans to say our brand name."

 

[Fenway]

Better: They went back to the 1950's marquee. Looks a lot classier, IMO. All in all, they did a pretty good job given the limitations placed on the building's sale by ML$E. The exterior was restored and probably looks better now than any at any point since at least the 1960's (given Ballard's neglect). The Athletic Centre was a coup for Ryerson University, which otherwise wouldn't be able to secure facilities like that in its Downtown campus. And most importantly, hockey is still played under the roof, albeit three stories up from the original surface. The grocery store is unfortunate, but even still... a far kinder fate than the Forum de Montréal received.



"We made the name boring and a mouthful to force fans to say our brand name."

The Forum site at least has this.

Center Ice of Maple Leaf Gardens is in the canned tuna section of Loblaws

 

[Killion]

Center Ice of Maple Leaf Gardens is in the canned tuna section of Loblaws

.... so I guess you could say the spirit of Maple Leaf Gardens truly does sleep with the fishies huh?

 

[htpwn]

The Forum site at least has this.

Center Ice of Maple Leaf Gardens is in the canned tuna section of Loblaws

Hockey is still played under the Gardens' roof.

That is infinitely kinder fate to an old NHL barn than what happened elsewhere, IMO.

 

[donghabs98]

Hockey is still played under the Gardens' roof.

That is infinitely kinder fate to an old NHL barn than what happened elsewhere, IMO.

I agree, I wish the Forum wasn't totally changed as it was. Keeping center ice was nice and some seats but converting it to a shopping and movie complex just seems wrong to do. Would have love to see them keep an ice surface in the Forum.

 

[berklon]

Not only that, but the exterior of the Montreal Forum is a total eye-sore.

Today Maple Leaf Gardens still has the classic architecture and looks great. Just looking at it you can tell it had a lot of history.

 

[Wingsfan 4 life]

If someone was paying me $800M over 20 years for naming rights, they can call it whatever the heck they want.

I do find it fascinating how much of a thought process is involved whether to call something an arena, gardens, place, center etc

When they first announced the name change, it struck me as weird that they were going with arena in the name. That seemed old-timey to me. Most newer(like 1990-present) big time buildings go with place or center/centre in their names.

At least I know why now.

 

[Andy6]

Well, they usually call it a "centre" (or, if you must, "center") because no one says "I'm going to the Centre" the way they would say "I'm going to the Arena" -- in other words, there is more reason to refer to the sponsor's name if they call it a "centre" (or "place"). So the choice of "arena" in this case was surprising, but it may be that "arena" has almost become obsolete as a generic term for a major league facility (it doesn't sound grand enough anymore - more like a local ice rink), so that the alternative "the Arena" isn't that likely to be used. For the money they spent, I'm sure they thought this through. Scotiabank is associating itself with hockey in other ways - their logo is going on a new office tower in the True North Square development right next to Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg as well.

 

[rojac]

If someone was paying me $800M over 20 years for naming rights, they can call it whatever the heck they want.

I do find it fascinating how much of a thought process is involved whether to call something an arena, gardens, place, center etc

When they first announced the name change, it struck me as weird that they were going with arena in the name. That seemed old-timey to me. Most newer(like 1990-present) big time buildings go with place or center/centre in their names.

At least I know why now.

Rogers Arena in Vancouver, named as such in 2010.