More signs point to a sign bearing a Telus brand being plastered onto BC Place Stadium.
Telus is, for all intents and purposes, the official telecommunications provider to the province. A $1 billion, 10-year contract to service the government, Crown corporations BC Hydro, ICBC, BC Lottery Corp. and WorkSafeBC and six health authorities was announced June 29.
Telus is a Canadian Football League, BC Lions and Grey Cup Festival sponsor.
The Vancouver Whitecaps refer to their new home sometimes as Bell Pitch Downtown at BC Place Stadium or just Bell Pitch Downtown. The building happens to be next to Rogers Arena, which almost became Telus Place after General Motors decided to drive away early from its deal last year.
At the stadium’s July 31 open house, BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) chairman David Podmore said an announcement on the naming rights sponsor is coming in mid-September.
“I can’t comment on any Telus deal,” Podmore said.
Podmore’s Concert Properties board includes two senior Telus executives (one of which is treasurer Robert Gardner) and two high-ranking members of the Telecommunications Workers Union (including president George Doubt).
Telus is planning to build the $750 million Telus Garden office and condo complex, so two Telus-named buildings might be overkill. Why not Optik Place? The Internet TV product is now the focus of the company’s marketing, and it has Shaw Communications nervous.
Instead of saying “no” to this columnist’s query in April, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said: “BC Place is a vibrant cornerstone of our community – a host of two great sports teams, the Terry Fox memorial, and numerous community events, concerts and trade shows. I’m sure many organizations would be interested in being associated with such an outstanding facility.”
Will the announcement and, perhaps, the reopening of the stadium be delayed by labour trouble?
Negotiators for the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union local 1703 met August 10 and 11 with mediator Mark Brown. They’re set to reconvene September 7 and 8. The union’s four-year deal expired May 31. PavCo can’t afford a picket line during the final, frenzied three weeks of the $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovations.
PavCo told us one of the ways for the stadium renovation to pay for itself was through increased event bookings.
After the retractable roof, the next most-noticeable feature will be the giant centre-hung, shoebox-style scoreboard. It’s so big that it may mean the Toronto Blue Jays or Seattle Mariners won’t pay a return visit for an exhibition game.
“We have asked (Major League Baseball) for a ruling on the scoreboard and required height but as yet we have not received a position,” PavCo president Warren Buckley said.
“I do have some concerns about compatibility; however once we see it open and operating we’ll have a better feel,” said Vancouver Canadians president Andy Dunn. “Right now my concern would be height of the scoreboard. They’re putting in a seamless turf [for soccer and football]. If you’re putting in a seamless turf, how do you lay warning tracks, how do you lay infield? It can always be fixed if you threw enough money at it, but at the end of the day would it be economically feasible to try to pull it off?”
BC Place hosted the first indoor baseball game in Canada on August 12, 1983.
Interesting how tycoons from the Middle East are attracted to athletes’ villages.
Vancouver’s Olympic Village was developed by Iranian-born brothers Shahram Malekyazdi and Peter Malek. It went into receivership last November over their company’s $740 million debt to City Hall. Emaar Properties of Dubai, under chairman Mohammed Ali Rashid Ali Abbar, partnered with MGF Development of India to build the Commonwealth Games Village in Delhi. It was among the many reasons why the Games cost $4.1 billion – 16 times more than planned.
Just as Britons were cleaning up from this month’s riots came news that Qatari Diar and Delancey Properties would pay the equivalent of $903 million for the London Olympic Village. It cost British taxpayers almost $1.2 billion to build. Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani toured the Olympic Village last October during a state visit.
When it rushed to make the pre-Games bargain deal, London’s Olympic Delivery Authority must have had Vancouver’s post-Games village vexation on its mind.