NHL Jets ownership group True North Sports & Entertainment yesterday announced the MTS Centre would be "getting a name change and face-lift, dropping the corporate moniker it has had since it opened its doors" in '04, according to David Larkins of the WINNIPEG SUN. The downtown Winnipeg arena will be "known as Bell MTS Place, a necessary alteration given Bell’s acquisition of MTS that merged the two telecommunications entities into Bell MTS in March." The practice and training facility for the Jets and the AHL Manitoba Moose will "also be changed to Bell MTS Iceplex." Jets Exec Chair Mark Chipman said, "There’ll be a short-term impact on (name recognition), but as long as the name MTS is still in it I think we’re quite satisfied with that." Chipman said that there is "no change to the financial agreement" with four years remaining on the naming-rights contract (WINNIPEG SUN, 5/31). Chipman said that "since there is already a Bell Centre in Montreal, using the word 'place' in the new moniker avoids any potential confusion" (CP, 5/30).
