Winnipeg's True North Centre yesterday got a new name, a big financial backer and a pledge to make it the most high-tech arena in Canada.

The $133.5-million complex was dubbed the MTS Centre after a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal was signed with Manitoba Telecom Services.

When it opens in November, the MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg will have the most advanced telecommunication facilities of any sports and entertainment complex in Canada. For example, patrons will be able to use their cellphones to order to-their-seat delivery of a beer and a hotdog so they don't miss a minute of action.

Plans also include a new MTS-TV channel that will show an unspecified number of Manitoba Moose hockey games to people who subscribe.

"It's the newest facility in Canada and because it's being built from the ground up, we're able to provide the connectivity from the get-go," Cheryl Barker, president and chief operating officer of MTS Communications Inc., said yesterday of the building that is already being referred to as "the Phone Booth."

The television service, which is expected to have 8,000 subscribers by the end of this year, will also include digital television in all 50 luxury suites at the arena. Patrons will be able to buy tickets to arena events by pressing a few buttons on their cellphones. They will also be able to receive text messages about the latest concerts and events coming to the building.

The deal, as revealed in the Free Press yesterday, will have MTS provide True North with $7 million over 10 years.

The agreement, one of the best-kept secrets in town, was officially let out of the bag yesterday in the building's concrete shell on Portage Avenue.

All features will be continuously upgraded as technology improves, Barker said.

Mark Chipman, chairman of True North, said the potential offered by MTS-TV was a key part of the deal.

"They've essentially given us our own television channel; it's exactly the same concept as (Toronto Maple) Leafs TV," he said. Chipman said MTS-TV will let True North produce home games in the MTS Centre's production studios or pick up and transmit live feeds from out-of-town games.

The sponsorship deal gives MTS the right to advertise its phone, wireless, Internet and television products on the arena's scoreboard, ribbon board (a horizontal display area), rink boards and at centre ice.

It also gives MTS an option on advertising on the multi-media marquee facing west on Portage Avenue.

Sherman Kreiner, CEO of Crocus Investment Fund, which has invested $5.2 million in True North and the Manitoba Moose, the MTS Centre's lead tenant, said identifying the naming-rights sponsor was a "critical financial landmark" and follows the selling of the corporate suites.

Both he and Jim Ludlow, CEO of True North, said the organization will be ahead of the $3 million it budgeted in annual revenue from advertising and sponsorship, including naming rights, pouring/product rights, concourse signage, bowl signage and promotions.

This is largely due to the four to six "founding partner" sponsorships True North expects to sign, a sponsorship tier it didn't expect to have when its business case was presented in April 2002.

"We're generating enough enthusiasm (from the corporate community) that we're confident we'll be at the high end of our expectations," Kreiner said.

Coca-Cola has already signed on as one of the founding partners, inking a more than $1-million deal in October to be the exclusive beverage company at MTS Centre. Sponsorships from a media company, an automobile manufacturer and a beer company are expected to follow in fairly short order.

Ludlow said MTS was picked from six to nine local and national players, in fields such as soft drinks, beer, financial services and automobile manufacturing, who were interested in acquiring the naming rights. "Sponsors have come to the table in a pretty robust fashion," he said.

Ludlow said there are 225 tradespeople working on the old site of the Eaton's building, but that will double in the early spring when the building's roof is completed.

He noted True North will also retrofit the 20,000-square-foot red-brick building at Graham Avenue and Hargrave Street that used to be Eaton's power house. It will be connected to the MTS Centre by a skywalk and an underground tunnel. The mezzanine level will feature a sports bar and the rest will be filled by True North office space, he said.

The price tag for the naming rights is the highest for any of Winnipeg's sports venues. Canad Inns paid $1.5 million over 10 years to add its moniker to the former Winnipeg Stadium, longtime home of the CFL's Blue Bombers, and CanWest Global Communications paid the same amount for the right to name the Winnipeg Goldeyes' ball park.

Rather than calling the complex something like MTS Gardens, Barker said the company didn't want to tinker too much with the True North Centre working name.

"We didn't want to rebrand the entire thing. We think MTS Centre has a nice ring to it," she said.

The news wasn't universally welcomed yesterday. Wendy Sol, the Winnipeg-based representative for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada -- which represents 1,300 MTS employees -- said she was "stunned" to hear about the naming rights just a few weeks after MTS announced 85 layoffs.

"We have communities in Dauphin and Thompson where our members no longer have work, all in the name of profits, yet MTS has millions to spend on hockey instead of meaningful jobs," she said.