Are the Predators still purchasing from Sommet business units?

There was an interesting sight on the event level of Sommet Center prior to Friday night’s Predators game against the St. Louis Blues, over 100 neatly stacked and shrink-wrapped cases of merchandise bearing the logo of BrandCentrik. These items were not in that same location Monday when the Predators took on the Detroit Red Wings that night. 

Interestingly enough, after Wednesday’s announcement that the Predators had terminated their arena naming rights agreement with Sommet Group due their failure to meet their payment obligations, Sommet Group’s managing partner Brian Whitfield issued a statement saying:

“The reason we have withheld payments is because our supposed partner in naming rights is not acting like one. We entered into the agreement with the understanding that in partial exchange for our payments, our business units would be the preferred provider of certain products and services.

The most recent straw that broke the camel’s back was their order of thousands of T-shirts from out of state instead of from Sommet’s BrandCentrik business unit. That in our view is not being a good partner as was promised.

This goes a little bit beyond non-payment.”

It is interesting that Whitfield’s statement used the term “understanding” in relation to the agreement between the parties. If there was something more concrete between the parties, it would stand to reason that Whitfield would have made mention of a contractual obligation on behalf of the Predators rather than said understanding.

According to its web site, BrandCentrik is a premier promotional products and merchandising manufacturer, offers the highest-quality, in-house creation of artwork, embroidery and screen printing to deliver targeted, powerful branding to companies at the most competitive price.

The arena will continue to bear the Sommet Center name until the team presents a proposal to Metro’s Sports Authority requesting the name be changed. The team is in all likelihood going to request the building be once again named Nashville Arena, its original name, as well as the one that followed when the arrangement between the team and Gaylord Entertainment soured resulting in the ending of the building being known as the Gaylord Entertainment Center.