The Roanoke Times

File 2008 Selling the naming rights to the Roanoke Civic Center could lower the city's cost to subsidize it, which is more than $1 million a year.

Corporate names on arenas, stadiums and other entertainment venues have been common for years. Sometimes, they've seemed as interchangeable as billboard advertisements.

But since the Roanoke Civic Center opened in 1971, it's simply been the Roanoke Civic Center. Roanoke City Council has discussed selling the naming rights in general terms over the years, but the closest it came was during the venue's ultimately failed attempt at hosting minor league professional basketball.

The complex took a step toward making a name change this week -- but don't expect it to happen anytime soon.

Philadelphia-based Global Spectrum, now the civic center's management company, and a consulting firm that Global Spectrum owns signed a city-approved contract with a local sponsorship and advertising company on Tuesday that puts the idea of naming rights on the table.

But it's more like a side dish to two entrees that venue management sees as more immediately nutritional -- quick revenue from advertisements and a better look to the old complex. It's a deal that could cut significantly into the more than $1 million in taxpayer subsidy that the city covers annually.

The deal announced Wednesday gives Roanoke-based Sponsor Hounds a by-commission deal to sell advertising in, on and outside the civic center's coliseum, auditorium and special events center. Sponsor Hounds will receive an 18 percent commission for every ad or sponsorship it sells. The consulting firm, Front Row Marketing, will receive 9 percent per sale. The rest will go to the city.

With sponsorships ranging from $1,000 for a restroom sign to $25,000 for a corporate name on each coliseum step, there is "no question it would cut into the subsidy, even without naming rights sponsorship," said Chris Connelly, who runs the facility for Global Spectrum.

The contract gives Sponsor Hounds the ability to sell naming rights, but it "will not be knocking on doors" trying to sell that big ticket, Connelly said. In the current economy, and with no full-time tenant to guarantee a certain number of dates, chances are slim that a corporate entity would be particularly interested in spending the money to have its name dominate the venue.

"We're not kidding ourselves," Connelly said of selling the venue's naming rights. "It's not something that's going to happen tomorrow. ... If somebody's interested, we'll certainly talk about it. We feel like we're on the upswing, and we're counting on touring acts and our annual acts to keep increasing."

Roanoke Vice Mayor Sherman Lea said on Wednesday that he had not heard about the deal. But he said the idea was one worth investigating, particularly if it would help lower the city's annual subsidy.

The subsidy hovered between about $600,000 and $1 million annually from 1994 to 2001 but since has risen because of expansion costs and the loss of revenue from its sports franchises. In fiscal 2007-08 the operating subsidy ran at $1.6 million, in addition to $1.1 million to cover debt service on the recently built special events center.

The decision to hire Global Spectrum to run the civic center was made by the council largely in hopes that it could reduce or eliminate that annual subsidy.

Lea said that he would have to know more financial details about selling the civic center's naming rights, as well as more about any company that may be interested in buying them.

But "if it's something that can help us with regard to the subsidy, it may be workable," Lea said. "I'd at least be amendable to supporting it."

Any deal to sell the name would require the city council's approval.

It's not the first time that naming rights have come up for the civic center .

When the city signed on in 2001 to bring the NBA-owned Roanoke Dazzle to town, the deal included the possibility for a new name. Arena Ventures, a partnership between the NBA and Clear Channel Entertainment, had permission to sell the naming rights. Nothing ever came of that option.

The civic center, which in the early 1970s hosted the Virginia Squires of the long-dead American Basketball Association, has not had a full-time tenant since 2006, when the Dazzle basketball team left and the Roanoke Valley Vipers hockey team folded. The Roanoke Steam arena football team and the Roanoke Express hockey team both failed in the past decade.

The civic center continues to look for a permanent tenant. An indoor stock car racing league is interested in Roanoke, but Connelly said that no potential owners have stepped forward.

For now, Connelly would simply like to see some updated signs in the coliseum. "Kroger and Pepsi are our only two existing sponsors, and they have been for the past few years," Connelly said Wednesday. "We have existing signage that's been up for years."

Many of those signs are outdated, such as ads for local news stations that include the faces of personalities who are no longer on air, Connelly said. Companies that once paid for those signs have not paid to keep them aloft, but the civic center is not willing to spend the money to take them down, at least until there are paying sponsors to take their place.

A day after the deal came through, Sponsor Hounds President Waynette Anderson said she has been "running a lot of laps" at the civic center, showing potential advertisers the possibilities she sees at the complex.

Anderson for years sold advertising at Roanoke radio station WSLC-FM Star Country and has co-hosted the Cox Communications shows "Whatever" and "Life and Lipstick." She said there are all kinds of advertising and sponsorship opportunities both inside and outside the building.

Among her ideas: wrapping messages or graphics around the large, white columns outside each of the coliseum's four sets of restrooms; ads inside the restrooms; ads at the box office; even sponsorships for sections of the complex's parking lot.

Potential clients are excited, she said.

Connelly said that Global Spectrum brought in Front Row Marketing, the consulting firm, because it knows the business of corporate sponsorship sales. Sponsor Hounds, which promotes and organizes about five events per year at the civic center, has the local contacts, he said.

"The biggest thing on the city's end," he said, "is there's not really any risk here."

Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.