Workers remove the old name from Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., in preparation for new signage.
After 15 years, the venue formerly known as Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., has a new name. The new naming rights partner, Bon Secours Health System, is a nonprofit Catholic health system sponsored by Bon Secours Ministries.
“Bon Secours is focused on family and health, so for us as an arena in the middle of a community where people can come and enjoy themselves, spend time with their family and enjoy educational and cultural opportunities, it’s a great fit,” said the arena’s Asst. GM Beth Paul.
The new deal is for a total of $4.5 million over 10 years. The facility’s previous 15-year, $3.4-million contract with Bi-Lo grocery chain came to an end Sept. 1, leaving the facility to seek out another local partner. According to Bon Secours Wellness Arena GM Roger Newton, the new figure was based off a valuation from C.H. Johnson Consulting that came in at around $450,000 per year.
During the thirteenth year of Bi-Lo’s naming rights agreement, the arena began a year of exclusive negotiation to try to renew the contract. When the grocer and Greenville Arena District couldn’t come to an agreement within that year the district started looking around at local partners, going through the process with a community bank until that deal also fell through. In April, the district hired Denver-based Impression Sports and Entertainment to secure a naming rights deal.
Within a few weeks, the company brought a list of around 10 companies to pursue to Newton, many of which were health care systems. Negotiations began in June and within weeks, Bon Secours emerged as the frontrunner.
But the process wasn’t over.
“As is typical with multiyear, big contracts, you don’t just snap your fingers,” said Newton.
Certain aspects of the contractual agreement held up negotiations until the right wording was established.
“Probably the most sensitive issue to the sisters of Bon Secours was the 'Scandal Clause,' if you can call it that, because they’re very protective of their brand, their name and their mission,” said Newton.
Arena GM Roger Newton introduces Bon Secours Wellness Arena at a press conference.
Naming rights to an arena is a nontraditional way of marketing for an organization with religious affiliations. In order to finalize the agreement, provisions were put in place that were more about communication than booking rights.
The ‘Scandal Clause’ doesn’t give Bon Secours rights to veto or demand what gets booked, but puts a process in place to inform them of anything potentially scandalous that has been booked so that the company can handle it from a public relations perspective.
Bon Secours Wellness Arena is a publicly-owned facility, which means, legally, there are very few events it can refuse to book.
“If someone wants to hold a pro-choice rally, it’s a first amendment right, the right to assembly,” said Newton. “Speech is protected by the first amendment, so we quickly got past the idea of some artist on stage using the F-word.”
He added that Bon Secours recognized that throughout rock ‘n’ roll history when marketing or branding an artist sometimes controversy sells tickets, such as the infamous Ozzy Osbourne bat incident or Alice Cooper's on-stage guillotine theatrics. Most recently, the issue came to light again with former Disney star Miley Cyrus’ overtly sexual performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 25.
“They understand that in the entertainment business you’re going to have the Miley Cyrus controversies, and we got past all that in a hurry,” Newton said. The biggest issues for Bon Secours were those abhorrent to the Catholic faith, such as abortion, though they understand political and cause-driver groups’ right to use the arena.
The company insisted upon contractually including an option to void the naming rights contract if something so objectionable came to the arena that distancing itself with a PR campaign wasn’t enough. According to Newton, the financial penalty for terminating the contract early is “literally in the millions of dollars.”
These provisions have all been put in place but, if all goes according to history, they’ll never have to be used. Bon Secours looked at a list of events at the arena for the past five years and didn’t object to any of them.
The industry is beginning to see partnerships of health centers and arenas — previously with Moda Center in Portland, Ore. — because the events at arenas exude health, from the physical with sports to mental wellbeing with enjoying music.
“Our aim with this partnership is to meet and engage people where they are and promote their health and wellbeing,” said Bon Secours CEO Mark Nantz during the naming rights announcement. “I can think of no better way or place to engage people and promote their families' health and wellness than while they’re enjoying music, sports and family entertainment.”
The company will be able to promote wellbeing through several channels, the most obvious of which is signage that will take a few weeks to install. According to Paul, signage conversion and soft costs like branding and PR will cost around $200,000 and will be the responsibility of the arena.
Bon Secours will also receive a suite and an area in the arena staffed by Bon Secours that is designated for education promoting ways to live a healthy lifestyle.
“Ideally, they’ll continuously evolve what that education will be,” said Impression Sports and Entertainment’s Chris Foy, who added that one idea is to theme education based around designated months, such as promoting Cancer awareness in October since it’s national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“Other examples for exterior activation, depending on the event, could include a mobile screening, whether it’s a mobile blood drive or a mammogram screening,” Foy added.
Though the name is still very new and doesn’t officially start until Oct. 1, Newton said he’s already heard a new favorite nickname for the building.
“The sisters insisted that the word ‘wellness’ be in the name, and probably the top nickname being talked about is ‘The Well,’” he said. The Greenville Road Warriors ECHL hockey team loves the nickname because of the obvious water connection, and Newton said that the management at Bon Secours even liked it.
“There’s even a religious tie-in because of the scripture about Jesus at the well,” he added.
Interviewed for this story: Chris Foy, (303) 713-8597; Mark Nantz, (410) 442-5511; Roger Newton and Beth Paul, (864) 241-3800