It's all about the nuts and bolts now.
The city has released more of the specifics in its $1.7-million deal with Sadlon Motors for the naming rights on the former Barrie Molson Centre in south-end Barrie.
A staff report included on last night's general committee agenda authorized completion of the agreement with Sadlon Motors Inc., a Barrie-based business since 1971, for the 10-year pact.
The agreement establishes the rights, obligations and processes regarding design, installation and payment for the various naming rights and properties being granted in the agreement, Christopher Packham, the city's legal counsel, wrote in his report.
There's also a provision in the deal allowing for a mutually agreed upon extension for a further 10-year period at a future agreed upon price. Interest in extending the agreement must be communicated to the city no less than one year prior to the current deal's expiry.
Sadlon will be granted naming rights for all city-owned interior and exterior signs or displays at the facility. The city and Sadlon will also co-ordinate and mutually agree to the design of facility signs.
The city will pay for design and installation of elevated and lit signage along the west side of the facility on Bayview Drive.
The two sides will share equally in the cost of updating other specific signage at the facility, including refurbishing the existing “marquee” sign on the corner of Mapleview Drive and Bayview Drive, as well as developing and installing a new sign on the north side of the building exhibiting the new name of the arena.
Sadlon can also use the facility and parking lot for a total of eight days during each year of the term of the agreement for community events.
The Sadlons will also receive an exclusive parking space at the arena, where the name Sadlon Arena will be painted at centre ice.
The south-end arena had technically been without a name for several months after the agreement with MolsonCoors expired.
After the beer giant sent a cease-and-desist letter regarding the name of the municipally owned facility to the city and the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts, which plays its home games at the arena, the words 'Barrie Molson Centre' were removed from the facade and replaced with only 'BMC' while the new name was sought.
The Bayview Drive building had been known as the Barrie Molson Centre since it opened in 1995.
The orignal naming rights for the Barrie Molson Centre were negotiated in 1994 as part of a land swap between the city and Molson Canada. The city received nine acres of land —valued at $112,000 per acre, or approximately $1 million — and in return Molson received the arena naming rights.
City staff met with MolsonCoors executives in September 2017 to discuss their interest in continuing with the naming rights of the Barrie Molson Centre, but the offer to extend the agreement was declined.
After MolsonCoors asked that the name be dropped, Paul Sadlon Motors initially stepped up to take over the moniker to rename the arena as Sadlon Arena, through a 25-year agreement for the building at Bayview and Mapleview drives.
The proposed agreement would have seen the automotive company 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.
At that time, council rejected the offer, citing it as being too low compared to other cities with OHL teams.
CampMart, an RV dealership group with locations across Ontario, including one in Barrie, then proposed a 10-year naming rights agreement with the city at a cost of $1.65 million to rename it the CampMart Centre. That proposal was also sent back to city staff for review and was ultimately nixed.
In late November, the city announced it had come to a 10-year agreement worth around $1.7 million with Paul Sadlon Motors.
The details of the deal were finalized Monday night.
