TD Banknorth plants $100M to name Garden

BOSTON – The Boston Garden, a storied name that appeared consigned to the dustbin of sports history, was partially resurrected Thursday in a 20-year naming-rights deal assigning a new arena label in deference to modern marketing realities: TD Banknorth Garden.

But it’s an open question whether that mouthful will catch on with local fans of the dearly departed Boston Garden.

“I won’t use it, and I don’t know that anybody will,” Jeanne Cyr, a 64-year-old Cambridge retiree and self-described “huge sports fan,” said as she gazed at a huge banner that was unfurled on the building reading, “Hello, my name is TD Banknorth Garden.”

Many locals never took a liking to FleetCenter, the name of the now decade-old building that replaced the Garden as home of the NBA’s Boston Celtics and the NHL’s Boston Bruins.

“I never did call it FleetCenter,” Cyr said. “It will always be, ‘The Garden’ … but it should be spelled “G-A-H-D-E-N, as in Boston Gah-den,” she said in the local brogue that comes naturally to Cyr, a lifelong Boston area resident.

William J. Ryan, chairman, president and chief executive of Portland, Maine-based TD Banknorth Inc., acknowledged in an interview that some may drop the bank’s name when referring to the arena. But he said the deal is still a worthwhile investment for his bank as it tries to expand its footprint and name recognition in the Boston area and southern New England.

By returning “Garden” to the arena name, “We hope people will remember the company that allowed that to happen,” Ryan said in an interview after the deal was announced on the floor of FleetCenter.

Jim Ackor, a banking industry analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said, “Whatever Joe Lunchbox calls it, ‘The Garden’ or ‘TD Banknorth Garden,’ the name is going to be splashed over everything, and it’s going to be impossible to avoid. It’s really quite a coup for Banknorth.”

Financial terms of the naming-rights deal reached with arena owner Delaware North Cos. were not disclosed, but published reports citing anonymous sources familiar with the deal said TD Banknorth would pay between $5 million and $6 million per year.

Separately, the bank also has committed to invest more than $5 million in New England neighborhoods through the arena’s foundation and the Boston Bruins Foundation, and another $8 million for improvements to the arena over the life of the deal, officials said. Delaware North also owns the NHL’s Bruins.