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City could soon decide naming rights of ice arena
Published 11:11am Thursday, August 11, 2011What’s in a name? The planners of the Fergus Falls community ice arena will soon find out.
City Engineer Dan Edwards brought up the issue of the arena’s name and naming rights at Wednesday morning’s public works committee meeting. Right now, the plan is to call the building the “Fergus Falls Community Arena,” a name used to describe the arena in its early stages that has never fallen out of use.
“The name has sort of caught on,” Edwards said.
Still, he said, the final naming decision is made by the council, with input from the arena fundraising group or the community at large if it chooses. If the council does want to make a change, members should bring it up soon, as the lettering that will spell out the name will soon be ordered.
The name will be placed on the south side of the main rink and at the main doorway shared between the arena and the Roosevelt Education Center.
“In both cases, it would say ‘Fergus Falls Community Arena’ in metal letters attached to the arena,” Edwards said, adding that the letters by the door would also include the address and “Roosevelt Education Center.” The council is also free to adjust the placement of the letters.
Other naming issues involve whether to place a sign or letters on the practice rink, and whether to name individual rinks and rooms in the building’s interior. For that, the council will likely consult with the fundraising committee, who had offered naming rights as incentives to big donors.
“(The council) agreed that naming of the facility could be something the fundraisers could use to induce donations to the rink,” said Lisa Ahlgren, one of the fundraising group’s primary organizers. Things that can be named include anything from rinks to community spaces to locker rooms to scoreboards.
Which names will go where, however, are “still coming down the pipe,” she said. “The plan is to meet probably this fall … and sit down with the list of the major donors and touch base with them, find out what their interests are and find out what parts of the facility they’d like to have named after them.”
When the group first started raising money, the exact layout of the building’s interior was not known. “Now that we know what the rooms are, we can start getting those things together,” Ahlgren said.
As to the “Fergus Falls Community Arena” name, she said, “I don’t see any objection to that name at all.” However, she said the fundraisers will discuss it and all other parts of the arena that can be named soon.
At the public works committee meeting, Alderman Pat Connelly asked Edwards why the arena would be called the “Community Arena” instead of the “Community Ice Arena.” Edwards replied that the city’s goal for the arena would be for it to serve purposes for the entire community and not as just an ice rink.
“I asked that just so we could hear you say it,” Connelly said.
Tags: ice arena, public works and safety committee
How about “The Money Pit”?
That would be a good name or why did the town need another. Especalily when i keep reading about teens damaging protity and stealing should of just remodeled the school and turned it into a youth center with pool tables and games for teens and staff that they could of opened up to. It already had a gym and pool would of been a better idea.
If the Ice Palace is to be named after the largest donor, then the answer is simple; ‘Taxpayers Arena’.
I second your motion Acker.
nobody wants their name on the Arena?