Bank ends naming rights deal with troubled Arizona sports venue

A massive Arizona participant sports venue that defaulted on its bonds has launched a naming rights search after Bell Bank pulled out of a 2021 agreement. 

Legacy Cares, Inc., the venue’s nonprofit developer, said Tuesday Bell Bank Park will be called Legacy Park for now.

Legacy Cares and Legacy Sports have also split, according to a notice posted on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA website Tuesday. It said the venue will be run under a qualified management agreement with Elite Sports Group.

The notice also said investment banking firm Miller Buckfire has been retained “to investigate options for the park, including a potential sale of the borrower’s interest in the park.”

“The search now begins in earnest for a new naming rights partner,” Legacy Cares President Douglas Moss said in a statement.

The bank, which entered into a 10-year naming rights deal in September 2021, issued a statement Monday saying it notified the venue’s operator, Legacy Sports USA, in November it was terminating the agreement following “various defaults under the naming rights agreement, as well as public reports of financial concern at the facility.” 

“Bell Bank had no control or influence over the operations, budget or management of the facility, nor did it make any debt or equity investment in the facility or any of the affiliated entities,” the statement added.

Legacy Cares sold $284 million of mostly tax-exempt revenue bonds in 2020 and 2021 through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority to build the 320-acre Bell Bank Park in Mesa that opened in January 2022. The unrated bonds were priced at yields from 6.25% to 7.836%.

Last year, bond trustee UMB Bank declared events of default because Legacy Cares failed to make scheduled monthly payments toward the revenue fund that supports debt service on the venue, which was built to host youth and amateur competitions in sports including soccer, basketball, volleyball and pickleball.

A bond payment default occurred in January when only $2.68 million was available in the bond fund to make a $10.3 million interest payment.

A plan to refinance the bonds and generate funds to settle claims from contractors and others was rejected by bondholders.