The Edmonton Oilers are set to make a “big announcement” regarding their downtown arena plans today, according to their house TV broadcaster Tom Gazzola. Which could mean … jeez, pretty much anything, given what passes for major announcements these days.
But it’s a slow news day, so sure, let’s take a guess. When we last checked in, the $676 million Oilers arena project was still $50 million short of full funding, even after getting more than $300 million in commitments from various levels of government. Plus it’s likely the arena construction will cost $80 million more than has been projected, and I’m pretty sure there’s still no deal in place to cover cost overruns.
So … hmm. It’s pretty unlikely Oilers owner Daryl Katz would voluntarily announce that he’s chipping in more money to cover any of these gaps, given his past behavior, even if he could pay for it out of just the increased value of his franchise thanks to the promise of the new arena and the NHL’s new TV deal that made pretty much every NHL team jump 50% in value this year. If it’s not about construction money, then, and the design of the place has long been set, I’m going to guess it’ll be the announcement of a naming-rights partner, or some other “prime sponsorship” kind of deal. Tune in later today to see if my exciting wild-ass guess was correct!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/rogers-secures-naming-rights-for-edmonton-s-new-arena-1.2449243
You are correct. It’s Rogers – they already have the Canucks arena among other things.