The name remains the same

After announcing a three-year, $3 billion investment in B.C. (enabled by its 10-year, $1 billion provincial government supply deal), Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told me that the company invested between $10 million and $15 million of goods and services to make B.C. Place Stadium the world's first "all-digital" stadium.

Yet, it remains B.C. Place. The naming rights deal that was supposed to happen last fall didn't. Maybe it will never happen, judging from what Entwistle (who is pictured on the right with NDP leader Adrian Dix) told reporters on March 2.

"That question as it relates to sponsorship is best posed to (B.C. Pavilion Corporation). That's their responsibility and ultimately their decision. In terms of Telus's perspective, we're tremendously excited about the part we played to bring that stadium to fruition from a technology perspective. The technology that's been infused into that stadium will create an unparalleled fan and technology experience.

"For us right now we're just focussed on the technology component of that solution. Again, any sponsorship conversation is best had with the PavCo organization. At the end of the day, as a public organization, we're deploying technology. Certainly there will be a commercial return associated with that and we'll work that out in a technology supplier agreement with PavCo which we're in the progress of doing right now."

Backbench MLA Colin Hansen was the only Liberal politician at the news conference. No executives from B.C. Pavilion Corporation, which operates B.C. Place, were seen. On March 2, Telus also placed full-page ads in Vancouver newspapers promoting its work in B.C. Place. There was even a strategically placed dogwood blossom in the upper right corner. (Dogwood is the provincial flower.)

The Vancouver Whitecaps, who are sponsored by Telus competitor Bell, are the stadium's main sports tenant and start their first full-season in B.C. Place on March 10, playing on what the Major League Soccer franchise calls "Bell Pitch."

B.C. Place workers were recently issued uniforms that include the new B.C. Place logo. They had received blank shirts and jackets before the Sept. 30, 2011 reopening, in anticipation of the name change sometime before the 99th Grey Cup. PavCo even paid more than $50,000 to remove the old B.C. Place external sign and commission a new one bearing the Telus name.

My Feb. 23 interview request to PavCo chairman David Podmore and CEO Warren Buckley was referred to Pat Bell, the Minister Responsible, who told me:

"It may or may not take on a corporate name. It is B.C. Place. The fact it has B.C. Place on the uniforms is something we were contemplating regardless. The name of the facility is B.C. Place. It may have a corporate sponsor, it may not, but it is B.C. Place… It is B.C. Place for us, that's what we've called it for a long, long time. British Columbians know it as B.C. Place."

So there you have it. Telus, which was supposed to be the naming rights sponsor, is still negotiating a contract so it can be called an official supplier. The six-month-old B.C. Place logo has finally shown up on the uniforms of staff.

The sale of naming rights was supposed to help lessen the burden on the taxpayer for the $563 million renovation.

Yet another broken promise? Or a casualty of the telecom marketing wars?