Charter Communications VP/External Communications Justin Venech said that the name of Charlotte’s uptown arena, which bears the Time Warner Cable moniker, "will remain 'for now'" following Charter's acquisition of TWC, according to a front-page piece by Rick Rothacker of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Hornets Exec VP and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Pete Guelli said that they "haven’t had any dialogue to date with Charter, 'but we anticipate discussions in the near future.'" Rothacker notes the team "didn’t disclose the length or cost of the naming-rights deal when it was announced" in '08 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/19). Guelli added that no decisions have been made at this point and no talks have been scheduled to discuss the potential rebrand of the arena. “It could be (renamed) based on Charter’s branding strategy, but we have not spoken to them about it,” Guelli said. “I don’t think it was even a discussion they could have before the deal closed.” The venue opened in '05 as Charlotte Bobcats Arena (Don Muret, Staff Writer).
JUST ONE ASPECT OF THE DEAL: Charter Communications Chair & CEO Tom Rutledge noted the company now has several RSNs under its control with the acquisition of Time Warner Cable, but that "wasn’t the reason why we wanted to do the transaction.” Rutledge: “We fundamentally believe that cable is a superior infrastructure and that done well it can be a really great product and really resonate with customers. So the sports channels were not the driver of this transaction but they’re there, they’re valuable assets and we’ll try to evaluate how that fits into our long-run strategy" ("Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg TV, 5/18).
