Santa Ana Pueblo bought naming rights to struggling arena

Tuesday, May 17, 2011  

Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico puts its name on a struggling arena whose management company has cost communities across the nation tens of millions of dollars, The New York Times reports.

The $47 million Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho was named after the tribe's Santa Ana Star Casino. The naming rights cost the tribe $2.5 million over five years, according to an Albuquerque Journal article published on July 14, 2006.

The deal ends this summer but the headaches caused by Global Entertainment linger. Rio Rancho has put city workers on furlough and has cut government services in order to keep paying for the facility.

“If you look at the numbers that Global Entertainment presented to us, it was really, really questionable then, let alone during a recession,” city manager James C. Jimenez told the Times. “If we didn’t have to allocate the money for debt service, our employees would have had raises and our budget would be in a better position.”

The city kicked out Global but both sides are now locked in court over unpaid bills.

Get the Story:
Company’s Arenas Leave Cities With Big Problems (The New York Times 5/17)