There's no need to start referring to the former Barrie Molson Centre (BMC) as something else just yet.
The possibility of renaming the BMC as the CampMart Centre was referred back to city staff at Monday night's general committee meeting.
There was no discussion around the council table as to why councillors chose to have the name subject to further review.
As reported last week by BarrieToday, the city appeared to be closing in on a new name for the south-end arena.
City staff recommended council approve a 10-year naming rights agreement with CampMart at a cost of $1.65 million for the Bayview Drive arena, which is home to the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts.
The matter still requires final approval from city council.
According to the proposed agreement, CampMart, which is a large RV dealership group, would also get to use the arena and its parking lots eight days a year for RV and outdoor shows, including one in August and the other in the spring.
The arena opened Dec. 31, 1995 and had been known as the Barrie Molson Centre since Day 1. The brewer held the naming rights after donating the nine-acre property to the city in 1994. That deal expired last year.
City staff met with MolsonCoors executives in September 2017 to discuss their interest in continuing with the building's naming rights, but MolsonCoors declined the to renew the agreement.
This past summer, the city and the Barrie Colts received a cease-and-desist letter from MolsonCoors regarding the arena name, so it became officially known only as the 'BMC' in the interim and the exterior sign was changed to reflect that request.
The city has been looking for someone to take over the name and eight interested companies were initially short-listed.
After assessing offers from companies on the list, staff originally brought forward a recommendation for a 25-year naming agreement from Paul Sadlon Motors to rename the BMC as the Sadlon Centre.
The auto dealership, which has been serving the Barrie area since 1971, was willing to pay $2 million in instalments of $100,000 over the course of 20 years, with no payments in the final five years of the deal.
However, in June 2018, general committee directed city staff to find another sponsorship agreement which would generate a minimum of $200,000 per year for the naming rights.
However, city staff determined that figure was unlikely, with similar-sized arenas in OHL cities being worth between $125,000 and $150,000 per year, according to the staff report. The average was found to be around $140,000 annually.
