?The ipayOne Center is no longer. The city-owned venue is back to being known as the San Diego Sports Arena, according to arena General Manager Ernie Hahn.
IpayOne, a Carlsbad-based discount real estate broker which had acquired the naming rights to the arena two years ago, reportedly is shutting down its home-sales operation and is no longer accepting listings.
As a result, the arena has shed the majority of the lime-green signs that have been its namesake since 2005.
The Arena Group 2000, the managing group of the San Diego Sports Arena, has replaced many of the ipayOne signs with the old arena signs, according to Hahn.
The agreement between ipayOne and the Arena Group 2000 has been “terminated based on default,” according to Hahn.
Repeated attempts to reach ipayOne’s chief executive, Michael Jackman and Marc Gold, a co-founder of the company, went unanswered.
“This is a chance to rebrand and refocus on a lot of things, and that’s good,” Hahn said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The city gets just 10 percent of any naming rights negotiated by the Arena Group 2000, Hahn said. In 2005, an independent evaluation determined the naming rights to be worth between $500,000 and $600,000, Hahn said.
The lease between the city and the Arena Group 2000 ends in 2017, he said.
Hahn said his top priority right now is wooing another company to rebrand naming rights to the arena. Hahn said plans are under way to make “additional modifications and updates to the facility” within the time the group has left on the contract.
Hahn said the arena is currently courting several potential corporations and said he hopes to have another name within the next six months.
Once a contract is negotiated between the group and a partner the next step would be a formal ratification by the city, he said.
This year, the Sports Arena will host an estimated 120 events, including professional basketball games, concerts and special events, he said.
The arena was once home to the San Diego Gulls — a professional hockey team — and arena football, Hahn said. But the arena isn’t playing host to as many sporting events as it used to because scheduled dates didn’t “prove to be financially viable” for the arena, he said.
The arena has had to compete with other, newer venues such as Qualcomm Stadium.
Opened in 1966, the sports arena has hosted many exciting moments in sports history, including the Muhammad Ali versus Ken Norton bout that led to Ali’s defeat, according to the arena’s Web site.
