Exclusive: inside the B.C. government name game

Some observers of the government's snub of Telus over the B.C. Place Stadium naming sponsorship wonder why the government didn't just let Budweiser buy the name and be done with it.

Telus installed $10 million to $15 million worth of wi-fi and mobile phone systems and video screens as part of the deal it reached with B.C. Pavilion Corporation in March 2011. That $35 million to $40 million you've heard about is not all cash on the table. It relied heavily on the provision of goods and services. Now PavCo has to buy its way out with your money and mine. The only way it can soften the blow now is to designate Telus as an exclusive or official supplier.

But the bigger reason is that no provincial government building in B.C. can be named after Budweiser. Or Molson Canadian. Or Guinness. Or even the Sorrento, B.C.-made Crannog Back Hand of God Stout or Gael's Blood Potato Ale.

The province's Naming Rights Policy says government will not approve an opportunity for naming recognition:

"that involves an individual, business or organization whose main business is derived from the sale of alcohol, other than a provincial or national industry association that focuses on harm reduction regarding the responsible use of alcohol."

Yes, the province has a naming rights policy and applications are overseen by a little-known committee of bureaucrats (chaired by Executive Lead of Strategic Vendor Management Richard Poutney) under the Intellectual Property Program within the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government. You can read it here. However, the policy contains a loophole that opens the decision to political interference.

Section 4.5 of the policy says cabinet will decide on naming opportunities if:

(a) the size or visibility of the asset is of particular significance;
(b) the value of the contribution is greater than five million dollars;
(c) the asset is or will likely be the object of media attention, or is otherwise in the public eye;

All three apply in the context of the B.C. Place naming rights opportunity. The minutes for the committee's only meeting in 2011 (below) show that the Telus proposal to rename B.C. Place Stadium as "Telus Park" was not submitted to the committee. This was handled (or, perhaps, mishandled) solely by cabinet and, therefore, we may not know the details until 2026 or 2027 when the particular cabinet documents would become public.

What do you think? Should the naming of any and all provincial buildings in B.C. be vetted first by a committee that reports publicly (and doesn't wait for reporters to file a Freedom of Information request)? Should cabinet have a role, particularly when the bidder is a major donor to the ruling party or a major government contractor? (Telus donated more than $350,000 since 2005 to the B.C. Liberals and was given a $1 billion, 10-year government service contract in 2011.) And what happens if the chairman of the public body with the name up for sale has close ties with the corporation that wants to buy the name of the public building? (David Podmore's Concert Properties board includes two senior Telus executives and two senior officials from the Telecommunications Workers Union.)

It is, after all, taxpayers' money and taxpayers' own the buildings...

Province of British Columbia Naming Committee

Does "Brown out" mean lights out for Premier?

The shocking resignation of Peter Brown from the board of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation could be the beginning of the end for Premier Christy Clark's nearly year-old reign as Premier of British Columbia.

Brown was in New York March 9, while Clark was in Ottawa. Brown's name and profile disappeared from the B.C. Pavilion Corporation website at the end of the same week when Clark and Minister responsible Pat Bell publicly confirmed that the B.C. Place Stadium naming rights deal with Telus was cancelled. Telus had installed $10 million to $15 million of wi-fi stations, mobile phone antennas and video screens in the stadium as part of the deal that PavCo recommended to cabinet.

Through his Vancouver investment house, Canaccord, Brown has donated $312,230 to the B.C. Liberals since 2005 and backed George Abbott for the leadership of the party in the 2011 race. Brown was one of the biggest boosters of Gordon Campbell, who left the premiership after almost a decade and is now Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Clark was sworn-in on March 14, 2011.

Brown has resigned before from a similar organization because of political interference.

Brown was vice-chairman of the Expo 86 Corporation and chairman of the B.C. Place Corporation, a PavCo predecessor which merged with the B.C. Development Corporation to form the B.C. Enterprise Corporation.

Brown resigned in April 1988 after he was accused by Premier Bill Vander Zalm's secretary David Poole of wining and dining Li Ka-Shing, the eventual winning bidder for the Expo lands. Brown admitted hosting Li's son Victor for dinner at his Point Grey home, but denied any wrongdoing. He offered a stinging rebuke of Poole, the most powerful unelected official in the Vander Zalm government.

"The dinner in my house was part of a purely proper program to encourage any bidder that we could to participate in the B.C. Enterprise bid process," Brown was quoted in the Vancouver Sun. "Any attempt to cast aspersions on that function by anyone is a bitter and petty act by someone who's proved before he's not sure what the rules are."

Brown was on the board of directors for the original North American Soccer League Vancouver Whitecaps. He is also a collector of Group of Seven masterpieces.

It could be theorized that Brown's resignation in 1988 was part of the slow process that led to the eventual fall of Vander Zalm, who was finally forced out in 1991 by the Fantasy Gardens conflict of interest scandal.

Could the fumbling of the renaming of B.C. Place be the undoing for Clark?

UPDATE: On March 12 I received the following email from Peter Brown, who declined my March 10 request for an interview ("At 70 years of age I am trying to get my privacy back which is more difficult than it should be," Brown wrote, via his iPad.)

"It would be nice to be in a profession like yours where rampant poetic license was practiced. Here are some facts that you neglected in your blog:

"I did not back George Abbott for leadership of the Liberal Party as I believed he never had a chance.

"I entertained every bidder for BC Enterprise in my home and Grace McCarthy, the Minister responsible, was always present.

"That newspaper reference was caused by David Poole's attempt to improperly influence the privatization of the assets of BC Enterprise. This was a failed attempt by him. I had always agreed to serve as Chairman of BC Enterprise until the principle assets were privatized which was concluded with the sale of the Expo Lands. The government of the day had nothing to do with my decision.

"My current resignation is as I publicly stated. I agreed to go on the board of PAVCO to oversee the complex construction of two major Vancouver icons. That job is complete and I believe that board representation should now come from people in Tourism and Marketing - neither of which are my expertise. The decision was compounded by the fact that I have taken on too many boards and committees and need to cut back on boards like this where my contribution going forward is less relevant.

"As to my politics, I think it should be obvious to everyone that I am a supporter of governments who believe in free trade and free markets and believe the best results for all citizens will be generated by free enterprise alternatives. In this case, even you should be able to ascertain my political choice as the only one possible which makes the inferences in your article ridiculous. All the more so when one considers choices in the upcoming election and the critical impact the wrong decision could have on our economic well being."

Peter Brown

(Bob's notes: Brown's Canaccord Capital donated $11,500 to Abbott's campaign on March 28, 2011. No donations to any other contestant are listed on the Elections B.C. database. Canaccord donated $25,000 to Vision Vancouver in 2009. The Non-Partisan Association is the civic free enterprise party in Vancouver. I asked for, and Brown declined to supply me, the date on which he tendered his PavCo resignation and the contents of the resignation letter.)

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?

B.C. sport shakeup

A new era in British Columbia sport will begin March 1 when Scott Ackles is announced as the chief executive officer of the B.C. Sport Agency.

It is part of an overhaul in the province's sport system in the wake of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Ackles was the general manager of Vancouver's 2005 and 2011 Grey Cup festivals and replaces interim B.C. Sport Agency CEO Cathy Priestner Allinger, the Own the Podium blueprint author and VANOC executive vice-president of sport who was named last August to head of Vancouver's 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games.

Ackles effectively becomes the most powerful executive in amateur sport in B.C. Former VANOC sport vice-president Tim Gayda has left his post as Sport BC CEO to be a consultant. Gayda's position will not be filled.

Sport BC and the B.C. Sport Agency will be working in concert for the betterment of sport in the province. The B.C. Sport Agency takes over management of programs that were under the wings of 2010 Legacies Now, such as the Aboriginal Youth Sport Legacy Fund and First Nations Snowboard Team. The former 2010 Legacies Now group rebranded as Lift Philanthropy Partners.

The Battle for Bodog

I have had Bodog on my radar for more than seven years, as Calvin Ayre's Vancouver-founded online gambling company has very publicly targeted gamblers in North America despite federal laws to the contrary. The Americans enforce theirs, Canada doesn't.

Here is my 2005 feature from the Vancouver Courier.

Bodog has been, in one word, dynamic. It branched out into mixed martial arts events and a record label. Ayre operated secretly in Vancouver before remaking himself in the image of Richard Branson and Donald Trump: a celebrity, jet-setting CEO through which others may live vicariously. It took until 2010 before many in the Canadian media took notice. Here is CTV's W5 profile on Ayre and Alwyn Morris, the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic gold medallist who is behind Bodog operations on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve near Montreal.

Bodog was a sponsor of the 2011 Grey Cup in Vancouver, Canada's biggest annual, one-day sporting event -- under the guise of its dot-net "educational" and "free-to-play" website. The online gambling industry's dot-net sites are thinly veiled, yet vital promotional tools for the revenue-generating, dot-com websites.

The Grey Cup also receives federal and provincial subsidies. Yes, the same federal government which banned gambling (and the promotion of gambling) in the Criminal Code unless it is operated and/or licensed by a provincial government monopoly. See sections 206 and 207. In British Columbia, the B.C. Lottery Corporation's PlayNow.com is the only legal avenue (though it is still banned from taking bets on the outcome of single sporting events).

Here is academic background on the Legalization of Gambling in Canada.

In the fall of 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act. Since then, U.S. authorities have methodically picked-off online gambling outfits that target Americans. It was a matter of when, not if, Bodog would become the target. That finally happened Feb. 27 when the U.S. District Court in Maryland authorized seizure of the Bodog domain. The company, Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney were also indicted on charges of carrying on a gambling business and conspiracy to launder money.

The whereabouts of the accused are not known, but a statement on Ayre's website says:

“I see this as abuse of the U.S. criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large U.S. corporations. It is clear that the online gaming industry is legal under international law and in the case of these documents is it also clear that the rule of law was not allowed to slow down a rush to try to win the war of public opinion... it will not stop my many business interests globally that are unrelated to anything in the U.S. and it will not stop my many charity projects through my foundation."

Ayre, ever the smooth operator, has constructed a complex web and in late 2011 even launched a whole new gambling site, called Bovada. (Get it? BOdog, neVADA?)

The question has to be asked: what is the U.S. government's end game?

Is it simply enforcing laws against unregulated gambling on moral grounds? Wherever gambling goes, the risk of crime seems to follow. There are also very real and reasonable concerns about gambling addiction. Teenage boys, who were weaned on video games and are passionate about pro sports celebrities, are particularly susceptible to online gambling. The CBC documentary Gambling Boys is enlightening. McGill University's Dr. Jeffrey Derevensky is the foremost researcher on youth gambling trends. Here is his presentation to a 2009 conference in Singapore.

Or is the U.S. government playing catch-up with technology in a bid to ensure all forms of gambling available to American citizens can be regulated and taxed? The U.S. is a major debtor and grabbing a piece of the gambling pie has been bandied about as a means of mopping up the red ink.

The U.S. government's website seizure and indictment notices against Bodog are below. This will be one of the biggest sports business stories of 2012.

Bodog Website Seizure Warrant

Bodog Indictment

Gaglardi coy about Stars, doesn't dismiss a Canucks deal

Tom Gaglardi is the newest owner in the National Hockey League, having bought the Dallas Stars in last fall's bankruptcy auction. The president of Vancouver's Northland Properties, and majority owner of the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers, lost a bitter court battle with Francesco Aquilini for the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena in 2008.

During a morning interview on Feb. 27, I tried to get hints about whether the Stars would be buying or selling players before the trade deadline.

"I don't really know, our team's core and our best players are our young guys in their 20s... We're listening to a lot of teams, teams pursuing some of our assets. If we can make our team better, then we might do something. We need to get better on the ice and build around our young core of guys.

"We like our team, it's kind of a disappointing middle frame of the season. But we've won four in a row and played the way we always thought we could. It wouldn't surprise us to do very little, if not nothing, by this afternoon."

Could there be a deal with the Vancouver Canucks?

"Oh, sure, Joe (Nieuwendyk) talks to every general manager in the league, i know he talks to Mike Gillis regularly as well. It's as possible as any team in the NHL."

NFL juggernaut touches down in Vancouver

The roof of B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver was lit with New York Giants' blue after the Tom Coughlin-coached squad completed the second most impressive end of a season in football on this continent by winning Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. (The Grey Cup champion B.C. Lions had an even better comeback season.)





In Vancouver, the National Football League's marketing juggernaut (driven by Bud Light) took over the Commodore Ballroom, where the big game was screened. Team 1040's Scott Rintoul hosted the event with special guests like Oakland Raiders' wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh (right) and Football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen (below), the brother of Canadian Football League legend Damon Allen. (Photos: Ryan Harris)





Members of the Seattle Seahawks' SeaGals performed and the Sheepdogs of Saskatoon rocked.

There was even a spotting of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics women's skicross gold medallist Ashleigh McIvor.