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[size=-1] Wednesday, 02/23/05 [/size]
[size=-1] Gaylord giving up name on arena, quitting hockey [/size] [size=-1] By RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer
[/size] [size=-1]Nashville's downtown arena is in the market for a new name and a new corporate sponsor willing to pay millions to provide it.[/size]
[size=-1]Yesterday, Gaylord Entertainment Co. and the Nashville Predators announced that they've settled an 18-month-old legal dispute with a compromise that effectively ends Gaylord's 20-year, $80 million naming rights deal on the arena. It also ends Gaylord's minority ownership stake in the Predators' National Hockey League franchise.[/size]
[size=-1]As part of the deal, Nashville-based Gaylord agreed to pay the hockey club $4 million in cash and $1 million plus interest for five years starting when the NHL begins play again.[/size]
[size=-1]Under the settlement, Gaylord's name will stay on the Gaylord Entertainment Center until the Predators find another interested buyer. One complicating factor is that the national market for naming-rights deals on pro sports venues has been weak for at least four years.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord was paying $4 million a year to keep its name on the GEC.[/size]
[size=-1]''We've been compiling a list of potential partners,'' Gerry Helper, the Predators spokesman said yesterday. But he said none had been contacted yet.[/size]
[size=-1]The NHL lost this year's hockey season to labor strife last week, and it remains unclear whether the league and the union that represents the players will come to terms before next season. The Predators won't start marketing the naming rights on the arena in earnest until a deal is worked out between the owners and the players, Helper said.[/size]
[size=-1]''The current problems between the league and players had no bearing on the (legal) settlement,'' he said.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord helped bring the Predators to Nashville in 1997, investing $16 million for a 20% ownership stake. The company signed the naming rights deal in 1999, under a different management team than the one that runs the company today.[/size]
[size=-1]After new management took over at Gaylord in 2001, the Predators ownership and naming-rights deals were on the chopping block as the company sought to refocus on hotels and pare expenses, President and Chief Executive Officer Colin Reed said yesterday.[/size]
[size=-1]As part of its ownership deal, Gaylord could exercise an option in which it could sell its ownership interest back to the Predators over a three-year period. The Predators argued that the lenders and the NHL had to approve the transfer, which never happened.[/size]
[size=-1]The Predators struck first with a lawsuit in May 2003 after Gaylord didn't make a payment on the naming rights. Gaylord withheld payment to offset what the company thought it was owed to end its ownership in the team.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord countersued in July 2003, arguing that the Predators had breached their contract.[/size]
[size=-1]Last March, Chancery Court Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled in favor of the team, setting the tone for the settlement, which was worked out over the past several months.[/size]
[size=-1]Nap Overton, an analyst with investment firm Morgan Keegan & Co. who tracks Gaylord, said the settlement was good for the company and ends a financial obligation that was outside its business focus of hotels.[/size]
[size=-1]''That's not something Gaylord needs to focus on,'' Overton said of the naming rights and Predators ownership. ''They have a lot of other irons in the fire.''[/size]
[size=-1]Last year, the company opened a Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it's working on building up ResortQuest International, a vacation rentals company Gaylord bought in November 2003.[/size]
[size=-1]With the end of the naming rights deal, the Predators will enter a market that has been tough for such deals over the past four years. The Coliseum, home of the Tennessee Titans, was one of many venues to lose when the technology bubble burst and accounting scandals forced some companies into bankruptcy, ending their free spending on sports marketing deals.[/size]
[size=-1]In 2002, Adelphia's name came off the football stadium as the company made national headlines with bankruptcy and charges that its founders had looted the company.[/size]
[size=-1]The Coliseum remains nameless today.[/size]
[size=-1]The economy has been strengthening, however, and advertising and marketing dollars have been going back into sports, one analyst said yesterday.[/size]
[size=-1]''We have seen the market picking up in the last six to eight months,'' said Don Hinchey, a vice president with Denver-based sports marketing firm The Bonham Group.[/size]
[size=-1]Hinchey pointed to record television ads sales with the NFL's Super Bowl earlier this month.[/size]
[size=-1]But the market's improvement doesn't mean the Predators will be able to easily replace the Gaylord deal, considered a generous one in the sports sponsorship industry.[/size]
[size=-1]''There's no question it was a good deal,'' Hinchey said. ''Replacing that deal won't be easy.''
[/size]
[size=-1] Gaylord giving up name on arena, quitting hockey [/size] [size=-1] By RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer
[/size] [size=-1]Nashville's downtown arena is in the market for a new name and a new corporate sponsor willing to pay millions to provide it.[/size]
[size=-1]Yesterday, Gaylord Entertainment Co. and the Nashville Predators announced that they've settled an 18-month-old legal dispute with a compromise that effectively ends Gaylord's 20-year, $80 million naming rights deal on the arena. It also ends Gaylord's minority ownership stake in the Predators' National Hockey League franchise.[/size]
[size=-1]As part of the deal, Nashville-based Gaylord agreed to pay the hockey club $4 million in cash and $1 million plus interest for five years starting when the NHL begins play again.[/size]
[size=-1]Under the settlement, Gaylord's name will stay on the Gaylord Entertainment Center until the Predators find another interested buyer. One complicating factor is that the national market for naming-rights deals on pro sports venues has been weak for at least four years.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord was paying $4 million a year to keep its name on the GEC.[/size]
[size=-1]''We've been compiling a list of potential partners,'' Gerry Helper, the Predators spokesman said yesterday. But he said none had been contacted yet.[/size]
[size=-1]The NHL lost this year's hockey season to labor strife last week, and it remains unclear whether the league and the union that represents the players will come to terms before next season. The Predators won't start marketing the naming rights on the arena in earnest until a deal is worked out between the owners and the players, Helper said.[/size]
[size=-1]''The current problems between the league and players had no bearing on the (legal) settlement,'' he said.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord helped bring the Predators to Nashville in 1997, investing $16 million for a 20% ownership stake. The company signed the naming rights deal in 1999, under a different management team than the one that runs the company today.[/size]
[size=-1]After new management took over at Gaylord in 2001, the Predators ownership and naming-rights deals were on the chopping block as the company sought to refocus on hotels and pare expenses, President and Chief Executive Officer Colin Reed said yesterday.[/size]
[size=-1]As part of its ownership deal, Gaylord could exercise an option in which it could sell its ownership interest back to the Predators over a three-year period. The Predators argued that the lenders and the NHL had to approve the transfer, which never happened.[/size]
[size=-1]The Predators struck first with a lawsuit in May 2003 after Gaylord didn't make a payment on the naming rights. Gaylord withheld payment to offset what the company thought it was owed to end its ownership in the team.[/size]
[size=-1]Gaylord countersued in July 2003, arguing that the Predators had breached their contract.[/size]
[size=-1]Last March, Chancery Court Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled in favor of the team, setting the tone for the settlement, which was worked out over the past several months.[/size]
[size=-1]Nap Overton, an analyst with investment firm Morgan Keegan & Co. who tracks Gaylord, said the settlement was good for the company and ends a financial obligation that was outside its business focus of hotels.[/size]
[size=-1]''That's not something Gaylord needs to focus on,'' Overton said of the naming rights and Predators ownership. ''They have a lot of other irons in the fire.''[/size]
[size=-1]Last year, the company opened a Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it's working on building up ResortQuest International, a vacation rentals company Gaylord bought in November 2003.[/size]
[size=-1]With the end of the naming rights deal, the Predators will enter a market that has been tough for such deals over the past four years. The Coliseum, home of the Tennessee Titans, was one of many venues to lose when the technology bubble burst and accounting scandals forced some companies into bankruptcy, ending their free spending on sports marketing deals.[/size]
[size=-1]In 2002, Adelphia's name came off the football stadium as the company made national headlines with bankruptcy and charges that its founders had looted the company.[/size]
[size=-1]The Coliseum remains nameless today.[/size]
[size=-1]The economy has been strengthening, however, and advertising and marketing dollars have been going back into sports, one analyst said yesterday.[/size]
[size=-1]''We have seen the market picking up in the last six to eight months,'' said Don Hinchey, a vice president with Denver-based sports marketing firm The Bonham Group.[/size]
[size=-1]Hinchey pointed to record television ads sales with the NFL's Super Bowl earlier this month.[/size]
[size=-1]But the market's improvement doesn't mean the Predators will be able to easily replace the Gaylord deal, considered a generous one in the sports sponsorship industry.[/size]
[size=-1]''There's no question it was a good deal,'' Hinchey said. ''Replacing that deal won't be easy.''
[/size]
