LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The sports stadium in Henderson, previously known as the Dollar Loan Center Arena, officially changed its name Wednesday at a ribbon-cutting involving the city’s mayor and the president of the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Kerry Bubolz, president of the Golden Knights, said at the ceremony.
However, when questioned by the 8 News Now Investigators, Bubolz did not specifically address why the Golden Knights let Dollar Loan Center out of their naming agreement after two years. Dollar Loan Center and the Golden Knights signed a 22-year agreement in 2022 worth $84 million, which is the identical amount it cost to build the arena.
It’s not really about letting people out of deals,” Bubolz said. “They [Dollar Loan Center] had a different focus, which we respected. And there was a better situation for both parties.”
But Dollar Loan Center CEO Chuck Brennan Wednesday told the 8 News Now Investigators that his company and its website are now licensed in a handful of new states as part of a “national expansion” of the brand.
“We did not renew our marketing strategy of being their naming rights partner for the Arena,” Brennan wrote to the 8 News Now Investigators in an email. He added: “Even though the DLC name will not be on the building, we look forward to our continued support of the project.”
Bubolz indicated that Brennan remained satisfied with the naming agreement despite its early termination.
“I don’t believe they were displeased from what they were getting with the deal,” Bubolz said. “They have a new focus.”
The signs changed from Dollar Loan Center to Lee’s Family Forum – after Lee’s Discount Liquor, the longtime liquor store chain in Las Vegas – between Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday at the ribbon-cutting, Nami Lee, the company’s CEO, said her family’s company is looking forward to its relationship with the Golden Knights and the community.
“Together we have so much more to accomplish,” Lee said.
The official name change took place just hours before the stadium’s highest-profile tenant, the American Hockey League’s eighth-place Henderson Silver Knights of the Pacific Division, took the ice against the third-place Ontario Reign.
