The National Hockey League scored a $200,000 discount on renting BC Place Stadium for the 2014 Tim Hortons Heritage Classic, thanks to a group of downtown Vancouver hotels.
That amount is according to the contract an adjudicator ordered BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) to release.
Vancouver Hotel Destination Association’s (VHDA) Funding Agreement clause said the 36 member hotels would pay PavCo the sum if NHL Enterprises Canada LP linked its website to the VHDA’s BeVancouver.com reservations portal, booked rooms in VHDA member hotels and had the Ottawa Senators do the same for their March 2, 2014 meeting with the Vancouver Canucks.
“The lead on that particular opportunity was PavCo. They were looking for us to support with a certain amount of contribution to the overall sponsorship,” VHDA executive director Russ Cowan told BIV. “We didn’t necessarily identify specifically what those funds needed to be used for, so long as those conditions were in place.”
Cowan said VHDA has contributed between $400,000 and $600,000 per year – taken from destination marketing fees that members collect – to help attract major events and related hotel reservations. VHDA had similar sponsorship arrangements for the 2014 Grey Cup and the inaugural Canada Sevens rugby tournament earlier this year.
“We’re supportive of major sporting events because they create compression in the hotels in the city,” Cowan said.
PavCo and the NHL signed the agreement May 7, 2013. The licence fee for 10 days was set as the aggregate of the basic $150,000 rent, plus applicable taxes and charges for event staff. PavCo retained food and beverage exclusivity, but the contract said it would pay the NHL an amount based on a formula of gross sales.
PavCo has not disclosed how much it actually collected from the NHL or how much it paid the NHL. PavCo in-house lawyer Clark Ledingham refused on April 8 to disclose that information during the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s adjudication.
NHL was allocated 31 of the 54 suites on level 3. The contract said there was a total 1,058 tickets available for all suites. Tickets for the game ranged from $93.45 to $313.95. “Tickets sold through public on-sale will include the corporation’s standard facility fees of $2.75 [each] and service charges of $8 [each] which shall be retained by the licensee,” the contract said.
The NHL claimed it drew 54,194 for the Canucks’ 4-2 loss. It was the last time goaltender Roberto Luongo was seen wearing a Vancouver jersey, albeit the maroon and cream replica of the 1915 Stanley Cup champion Millionaires, before he was traded back to the Florida Panthers.
On May 25, after a two-year legal battle, adjudicator Celia Francis ordered PavCo to disclose the contract by July 7. NHL threatened to think twice about renting BC Place again if the contract became public. Francis dismissed the Crown corporation’s fear of financial harm and the NHL’s claim that the contract contained trade secrets.
“The NHL’s evidence that BC Place was the only suitable venue in which to stage the Heritage Classic indicates that indeed there was — and would be in the future — a clear financial incentive for the NHL to contract with BC Place to host this or other large-scale hockey events,” Francis wrote. “In my view, the NHL’s evidence undermines its position.”
Francis found that PavCo relied on “assertions, unsupported by evidence” and she had strong words about the NHL’s attitude about public-owned facilities.
“If the NHL is suggesting that this licence agreement should not be subject to accountability and transparency principles because both parties were engaged in a commercial, profit-making transaction and because the NHL normally stages its games in privately-owned facilities, I disagree,” Francis wrote. “PavCo’s mandate is to generate revenue for BC and it is accountable for the management of BC Place, a publicly-owned facility. Licence agreements for use of BC Place are subject to the same transparency principles as other agreements involving public bodies.”
Winnipeg’s Investors Group Field hosts the 2016 Tim Hortons Heritage Classic between the Jets and Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 23. The Detroit Red Wings visit the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL Centennial Classic on New Year’s Day at BMO Field.
