The pact to keep the Pengrowth name on the Saddledome remains solid, the Calgary Flames president yesterday, despite a report the long-time sponsor is wavering.
Flames president Ken King played down a report Jim Kinnear of Pengrowth Management Ltd. hasn't yet decided to renew a 10-year naming agreement that expires next June.
"I don't know if there is flux involved," said King, decrying "speculation" on the matter. "There is a solid agreement there." King said he'd just spoken with Kinnear "and he is very happy with it."
A management contract between Kinnear's company and Pengrowth Energy Trust expired last June and the local philanthropist was non-commital in a news report on whether he'd be renewing the Saddledome agreement.
"We're just considering options," Kinnear told a Toronto paper. For its part, officials with Pengrowth Energy Trust have said they don't plan to have anything to do with Saddle-dome naming rights.
What that contract is worth has never been made public.
With the energy industry in a recessionary retreat, many players in the sector have reined in spending and are reviewing budgets.
But King said he has confidence in Kinnear, as well as in the local economy, adding naming rights on the 26-year-old arena remain sought after.
"I'm very comfortable naming rights to the Saddledome now and into the future will be valuable and fully-utilized," he said.
King said the major sponsorship deal generates at least one or two corporate inquiries a year. At the same time, the Flames say they hope to have a new hockey home to replace the aging Saddledome in the next three to five years.
BILL.KAUFMANN@SUNMEDIA.CA
