Charlotte Hornets home to get a new name: Spectrum Center
By Ted Fleming
The Charlotte Hornets will rename their arena ahead of the new NBA season.
The Charlotte Hornets are getting a new home. Well, sort of.
The team is expected to announce today that the name of its home stadium will change from the Time Warner Cable Arena — a rather lengthy, tongue-twisting corporate moniker — to the much smoother Spectrum Center, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.
Time Warner Cable was acquired by Charter Communications in May and Spectrum is Charter’s digital brand that provides TV, Internet and voice services. TWC has been on the building since 2008, when it entered into a 20-year naming-rights agreement. It is estimated that the Hornets will receive $5 million a year.
TWC was the Queen City’s dominant cable provider before being acquired. The arena name-change will be completed before customers see the corporate change, expected next year. The Spectrum name was previously on Philadelphia’s Spectrum Center, the home of the Flyers and 76ers before it was demolished.
The new name will appear all over the arena: on the new scoreboard, on the court, on exterior signage and in smaller spots like business cards and letterhead. However, the change is unrelated to the $27.5 million construction project the city contributed in an effort order to draw the 2017 All-Star Game, which was then pulled by the NBA over the controversial House Bill 2.
“There will be hundreds of different places that we’ve got to make these changes,” said Hornets President Fred Whitfield.
Over the years, the TWC Arena has hosted more than 1,700 events, drawing more than 14.5 million visitors. It was the home of the Charlotte Checkers and the American Hockey League affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes before they moved to the smaller Bojangles Arena. There have also been a number of collegiate basketball events played at TWC, and it hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention.