The ceremonial puck drop after the official announcement of the Clarenville Event Centre’s renaming to the Eastlink Events Centre. Left to right are: Corner Brook Royals captain Michael Hynes, Clarenville Mayor and chairperson of the Clarenville Caribous Frazer Russell, Eastlink Regional Manager Arthur Taylor and Clarenville Caribous captain Dustin Russell.
The stadium, that organizations like the Clarenville Caribous senior hockey team and the Flying Blades figure skating club have called home, will now be known as the Eastlink Events Centre.
The building was christened as such before Saturday night’s Central West Senior Hockey League (CWSHL) game between the Caribous and Corner Brook Royals.
The sponsorship value from Eastlink is worth $72,000 per year for the Events Centre, confirmed Bob Hiscock, Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Clarenville.
He said the town will receive $20,000 in cash each year, through the agreement with Eastlink, as well as $52,000 worth of services such as promotion and advertising,
The contract with Eastlink is for five years, with an option for automatic renewal if both sides are happy with the agreement after that time.
Stadium manager Todd Cole says there are many possibilities with the new partnership between Eastlink and the Events Centre.
“One of the main things, it offers a lot of cross-promotional opportunities with Eastlink,” said Cole. “They’re going to be including us in some of their monthly bill statement, for instance. It’s going out to all their customers, we can put our flyers in there, they’re doing some e-blasts for us.”
The new name comes with several changes.
A brand new web page is among those changes. While it still needs some small fixes, www.eastlinkeventscentre.com is currently an operational site.
Fans will eventually be able to purchase tickets online via the new site.
“Up to this point, we’ve never invested truly into a website, but now it’s a fully-functional, amazing site,” said Cole.
In the stadium, the fans can expect to see the Eastlink lounge, where monitors play video constantly for spectators.
There are also new logos featured at centre ice, with Eastlink accompanying Clarenville Caribous, Clarenville Area Minor Hockey Association and Flying Blades figure skating club symbols.
“There’s a lot of in-the-stands promotion that Eastlink was doing. They want to activate the crowd, we want to activate the crowd — so it’s a perfect partnership.”
The is a big change for the Centre and one that Cole is looking forward to building upon.
“It also allows us to start latching on to a brand and start building it ourselves,” he said.
